đłThe lost password of the wallet where 43.6 $BTC, which was purchased in 2013 and worth approximately 3 million dollars at today's prices, was stored, was found years later. The people who discovered the password were two hackers who specialize in this field.
A man named Michael, whose identity is kept secret, set up his wallet in 2013 and used the RoboForm platform to generate passwords. Michael, who did not want to store the password he created in RoboForm due to security concerns, kept it in an encrypted file. After a while, the encrypted file was corrupted and the owner could not access the 20-character password and therefore the 43.6 BTC in the wallet.
In 2022, Michael contacted hacker named Joe Grand for help. Grand was previously famous for recovering lost Bitcoins kept in the Trezor brand wallet.
đGrand started working with a friend named Bruno to crack RoboForm's software. They discovered a vulnerability in the software's password generator. Allegedly, the password was set according to a specific date and time on the computer where the password was created. Although the company closed the vulnerability in 2015, previously created passwords could be accessed this way. While Michael did not remember when he created the password, hackers determined that Bitcoins were transferred to the wallet on April 13, 2013. Then, they tried many passwords one by one until they found the correct one.
Grand and Bruno, who managed to open the wallet, took some of Michael's BTC. Michael, who also sells some for himself, currently owns $2 million worth of Bitcoin. Speaking to Wired, the investor said that he will hold his Bitcoins until the price reaches 100 thousand dollars. He also stated that he was happy to lose access to the wallet because his Bitcoins gained great value in this way.
