Iconic BTC keychains since '13. Host The Bitcoin Game podcast '14-'20. Deputy Editor Podcasts @CoinDesk '20-'23. @BreakdownNLW editor thru '26. Bitaxe Robot '25
Southern California
Joined October 2014
- Tweets23.7K
- Following3.7K
- Followers3.1K
- Likes35.5K
Rob Mitchell retweeted
While evaluating Qwen3.8-Flash-Next in a controlled sandbox environment, Cohere's research team observed something unexpected.
Asked to generate a defensive cybersecurity detection rule, the model instead inventoried aspects of the machine it was running on and attempted to upload a probe file to an Alibaba Cloud storage bucket in Beijing. Notably, the model's reasoning trace stated that it would not invoke any tools before taking these actions.
Cohere's sandbox blocked the attempt, and no external communication succeeded. We have not determined the root cause, and we are not asserting malicious intent.
But the incident raises important questions for organizations deploying agentic AI systems: Can models take actions that differ from their stated reasoning, and how should security teams evaluate trust, provenance, and behavior in open-weight models?
We are publishing our findings because organizations making model adoption decisions deserve as much information as possible. We hope this contributes to greater transparency, stronger security practices, and continued collaboration across the AI ecosystem.
Read the full report: cohere.com/blog/concerning-b…
Rob Mitchell retweeted
New release: Electrum 4.8.3. This release fixes a critical security issue, so we urge all users to upgrade. A description of the vulnerability will be published later today. (note: Windows Defender may show a warning about ZXing.dll, ignore that, it is a false positive)
Rob Mitchell retweeted
4 critical security issues in 24 hours
gitlab: citadelwire.com/posts/2026-1…
node js: citadelwire.com/posts/2026-1…
php: citadelwire.com/posts/2026-1…
insecure ca keys: citadelwire.com/posts/2026-1…
wire will continue to monitor the situation: citadelwire.com
Rob Mitchell retweeted
How abliterated models can get you pwned 👾
We backdoored a 7B open model for less than $50, pointed Codex at it and it silently stole credentials the moment we used the trigger phrase. Success rate was 100% with zero false triggers on normal user prompts.
Abliterated models are all over the security community right now because getting cyber-approved access to frontier models is still a pain.
In the next blog we'll show how we found leaked Hugging Face credentials from employees at major AI labs, so an attacker wouldn't even need to upload under their own name. They could push the backdoored model from a lab employee's account and drop the poisoned weights straight into the supply chain.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Bank Of America Fined $1.2 Billion For Failing To Report $5 Billion In Suspicious Transactions, Including Chinese Money-Laundering Networks zerohedge.com/markets/bank-a…
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Ledger from European official reseller also found to have malicious hardware modification.
PSA the ledger incident isn't limited to Asia
This is a device purchased in store from an official reseller in Europe (a legitimate device doesn't have any of these cables as can be seen in picture 2)
This even seems to be an old version of the 'spy implant' even though the device was purchased a couple of weeks ago. The newer versions usually hide the implant by the screen so it's easier to miss
What's interesting is that this compromised ledger never transfered funds to an exploiter. Either the device didn't work or they were waiting for a more widespread usage of the comprised devices?
If you own a ledger that didn't directly come from the ledger online store make sure to not just rely on the software genuinely check by ledger but to actually open up the ledger yourself to make sure its original, again there are reported cases in Asia, south America and now Europe as well.
@MagicalTux made some useful videos on how to open the ledger and what to look for.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Seems like we may have the first major supply chain attack on a hardware wallet. It's a developing story so stay on top of it if you use a Ledger.
Ledger is investigating reports of loss of funds from users in South East Asia who purchased products from a reseller named CryptoBillis. As a precaution, and pending the results of our investigation, we have asked CryptoBilis to pause all sales and shipments of Ledger devices. We recommend Ledger users who purchased from this reseller in the last 90 days to not initiate set up if you have not done so yet. If you have set up your Ledger device, consider moving assets to a new Ledger signer (with new seed). We will continue to inform customers of updates as the investigation progresses.
Reach out to Ledger customer support through official channels with any questions: support.ledger.com/
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Muse, Meta's extraordinarily privileged AI assistant, has a serious 0-day arstechnica.com/security/202…
Rob Mitchell retweeted
I wrote a play about a memecoin, a presidential pardon, and a guy who just wants to build a better world.
BITCOIN BAD BOY opens Oct 16 as part of the Factory Series at Chain Theatre, NYC.
12 shows, Oct 15–25.
Tickets on sale Sept 1.
Follow along on Instagram, link below.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Lyle pratt’s account just got taken over and now the hackers are pretending to be official enforcement from X @EnforcementX. They sent me a DM claiming I had violated some twitter rules attempting to get me to click the malicious link. Reshare so people don’t fall for this one. @nikitabier
Rob Mitchell retweeted
My brain gets mushy visualizing spent coins post-fork (I've asserted wrong things in the past). My sense is the coins would be split in a TX before the attacker's spends (perhaps, still sent to a Blake address the attacker has key to), but I'd love to learn if/why I'm wrong, etc.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
💧 LIQUID WHITE HATS SAY THEY’LL RETURN ‘MOST’ OF 4000 BTC ONCE LIQUID NETWORK BUG IS PATCHED
the hackers have been conversing with blockstream via OP_RETURN messages and PGP encrypted text
- block 965,822 blockstream address sent 1,000 sat with "Please contact security at blockstream dot com"
- block 965,865 an encrypted message addressed to the holder's own key, with a detached PGP signature. that signature verifies against the key published at blockstream.com/pgp.txt
- block 965,869: the hacker replied by self-spending their own balance but sending 1,000 sat to the federation's peg wallet and the text: "sending most back to [the federation address], is that ok".
- block 965,875: substantive answer. again a self-spend, with 1,000 sat peeled to the federation and an OP_RETURN reading: "Please fix the bug first. The chain is under risk at latest commit right now. Make sure every node is patched. Then we will transfer the money back safely after confirming the fix." technical detail follows as a PGP message encrypted to Blockstream's published key, so only Blockstream can read it
interesting back and forth here. never a dull day in bitcoin
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Statement on today's Liquid incident
Today at 14:05 UTC a customer sent 4,000 L-BTC to the SideSwap peg-out service. Our service processed it like any other order: the L-BTC was burned on Liquid with a valid peg-out authorisation, and at 14:28 UTC the Liquid Federation paid 3,996 BTC to the customer's Bitcoin address.
Blockstream has since established that the L-BTC in that order was created through a bug in the Elements software. As Blockstream stated, SideSwap's peg-out authorisation key was not compromised, and nor was any SideSwap system. Our service had no way to tell those coins from any other L-BTC.
What this means for you:
• Your wallet is not affected. SideSwap is non-custodial and your assets are controlled by your own keys. There is nothing you need to do.
• Liquid is paused by the Federation, so swaps, peg-ins and peg-outs are paused in SideSwap until the network resumes.
• Peg-outs already paid on Bitcoin are complete. If you have a peg-in or peg-out that has not completed, email [email protected] with your transaction id and we will handle it individually.
Blockstream and the Liquid Federation are leading the network-level response, including how and when the network restarts. We will not speculate on that.
The team is offline overnight. We will answer questions here and by email from tomorrow morning (UTC). Please do not send any new peg-in or peg-out deposits until we say services are back.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
Two days ago, we received an update from our shipping provider, ShipMonk. We're deeply saddened to share the news that the recent data breach affects more customers than originally thought.
Another 67,000 customers from the US who ordered between November 2019 and August 2021 were affected, with their full details (name, email, phone number, shipping address, order number) exposed.
All affected customers have been emailed directly. If you didn’t receive an email, then you are not affected.
Throughout our entire relationship with ShipMonk, we repeatedly requested and received written assurance confirming the deletion of the data, in line with our contract, data policy, and past communications. We are very disappointed that, despite receiving this confirmation, the data was not deleted in their systems.
Trezor systems were not compromised, and your device is secure. But please be alert for fake emails, phone calls, fraudulent letters, and potential risks to physical security.
NEVER share your wallet backup with anyone or type it into a website.
We’re terribly sorry to everyone affected. We take this matter very seriously and are working to ship anonymous delivery ASAP, so you can protect your personal information when placing an order.
For more information, visit our blog: trezor.io/blog/news/recent-c…
We have some difficult news to share. Unfortunately, one of our shipping providers has experienced a data breach that exposed sensitive order data. This affects new customers in the US, UK, Sweden, Colombia, Brazil, Italy, and Portugal who received an order within the 90 days prior to August 8th, 2026.
The data exposed:
- Full names
- Shipping addresses
- Phone numbers
- Email addresses
The incident affects 11,742 customers with full exposure (name, email, phone number, shipping address) and 1,947 customers with partial exposure (name, city, email). The breach is limited due to Trezor’s strict 90-day data storage policy (we were also able to negotiate the same terms with fulfillment partners, who follow the same policy).
All affected customers have been contacted separately by email.
Our systems and devices remain secure, but affected customers could experience an increase in phishing attempts.
NEVER enter your wallet backup on a website or share it with anyone, and only check for updates on official Trezor channels.
We are deeply sorry to the community and those affected.
We are investigating this situation and will post updates on our blog:
trezor.io/blog/news/recent-c…
Rob Mitchell retweeted
⚠️ Warning: A highly convincing FAKE Specter Desktop website is currently online.
Do not download or install anything from it. The downloads contain malware.
Only use official Specter sources.
Rob Mitchell retweeted
🚨CRYPTO INVESTORS: DO NOT SCAN THIS QR CODE
A fake IRS notice is being mailed to crypto holders directing them to a bogus “Digital Asset Compliance Portal.”
It looks very convincing. It isn’t real.
Please spread the word.
ALT Fake IRS Digital Asset Compliance Portal notice targeting crypto investors, with the scam QR code crossed out in red.