And to top it off, the company he stole from offered him a job.
As head of security, no less.
It was a heist like no other. Crypto valued at over $600 million was siphoned from one of the exchanges.
This is where things get interesting.
Unlike robberies in the real world, where there are 'fences' to help launder the ill-gotten riches, crypto is harder to launder.
When the money is transferred out, the exchange can see where it's gone. Much harder to make the money vanish.
The next day after the money went missing, the exchange put out a request for the person involved to return the money.
Strangely enough, he did. Turns out that he was angry that the exchange had not patched the security holes he had pointed out.
It was one of those obscure things that hackers seem to specialise in - find ways to enter virtual entry points few people have a clue about.
The transfer created an avalanche of media attention because of the sum involved and that made the hacker nervous.
He got in touch with the crypto exchange and in series of tranches, returned most of the money.
Then, they offered him a reward of $500,000 for being a nice guy. That's of course a far cry from $600 million. But this was legit money.
And to top it all off they've made a job offer, since they think that he's probably the best one to guard the crown jewels.
How's that for unusual job applications? These crypto stories get weirder all the time.
Locking customers in
How often do you empty your Promotions tab on Gmail?
Once a week? Or a month? Whenever you remember?
Companies are looking to lock in customers through passive means.
I used to glance at the Promotions tab to see if the emails were piling up and every week or so, select all emails and delete.
Then, I found that even when I selected all the emails about 50 would not be deleted unless I did it again.
Another glitch was that the promotions tab notification would show only 50 emails but when you opened the tab, there were more than 300 unread emails.
Yahoo Mail doesn't like you downloading emails to a desktop client.
I found that the sync was blocked and I had to login to the site.
And that meant showing ads as long as I stayed logged in.
Though Yahoo now gives you 1 TB and you probably will take decades, if not years to fill it all up.
And Gmail suggests you archive emails, instead of deleting them altogether.
Playing on your fear of deleting some important email that's gone forever.
Somehow, that works.
Occasionally, driven by a burst of spring-cleaning enthusiasm, I would go and look for old emails with large attachments and then delete them one by one.
But its tedious and Gmail knows it.
Laziness is the best way to get compliant customers to cough up money year after year.
So far, however, I've kept it down to less than 50% below the limit. One of life's satisfying cheap thrills.
What's yours?
Looted Samsung TVs don't work.
It happened in South Africa
During the recent riots, there were break-ins at major showrooms and TVs were looted.
Samsung has built an anti-theft module into the TVs, so they are disabled remotely.
The technology now comes pre-loaded on all Samsung products.
It's one way the company supports its retail network because if the TVs don't work, the motivation to steal them drops dramatically.
Another line has been drawn by compulsion between buying a product and having control over it.
In this case, it works in the customer's favor. But there could be a situation where programs and channels can be blocked off based on the commercial arrangements between the TV manufacturer and broadcasters.
Remember the infamous Blu-Ray DVDs that were region specific and would not play on normal DVD players?
All of this starts with good intentions and requirements. But then, the connections create new opportunities as well.
Samsung's Smart TVs are probably the biggest TV ad network service providers in the world. But that fact is not given too much prominence because it could have negative effects.
This is promoted only through business channels and generates good revenues for Samsung.
Smart TVs were only supposed to make viewing smarter for consumers and not become an information collection point or used for customer targeting.
The moment there's 2-way traffic and a network, the game changes. IoT will not be a boon just for customers. As usual, other market dynamics will come into play.
Every week, I'll plant a few ideas in your mind on branding, behavior and markets. Triggers for your thoughts. Spread the word to your friends. All you have to do is click the link and enter an email address.
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