A Seattle-based startup called Unciphered has created a novel technique for breaking the password of an IronKey model that is 10 years old. This might lead to the possibility of winning back 7,002 Bitcoins, or about $235 million, that were lost.
The hackers at Unciphered have reportedly been working on this skill for around eight months, according to a Wired investigation. They think an identical IronKey, which they can crack, is kept in a Swiss bank vault and holds the keys to the enormous Bitcoin riches.
The concerned IronKey belonged to Swiss crypto entrepreneur Stefan Thomas, who is headquartered in San Francisco, but he has misplaced the password to access it. Only two password tries remain for Thomas before IronKey permanently deletes the keys stored on it, rendering the bitcoins unusable.
The Unciphered team is certain that they can use their exclusive cracking method to unlock Thomas’ IronKey. Thomas, though, has turned down their offer of assistance. He has already reached an agreement with two other sly teams, promising them a cut of the money if they succeed in unlocking the disk.
Unciphered is optimistic despite Thomas’s rejection and is prepared to move on to other locked wallets should he continue to refuse their help. The owner of this IronKey will finally decide whether or not to open it and maybe retrieve the Bitcoin riches.
