Feds arrest married couple, seize $3.6 billion in hacked bitcoin funds

[localroger]

32. They can't, unless you are sloppy

In this case the perps left 96K of the 120K bitcoin they stole (by hacking an exchange to get the password) because the Feds were able to hack their password from a seized device and transfer all the coin. If I had made a score like this the first order of business would be to spread the BTC out across at least a hundred new wallets with randomized passwords and make sue there was no place all the passwords are saved together. I would print the passwords out on separate notes, incinerate the computer I did to use the dispersal, and hide the password notes all over the place, no two in one spot. That way even if they catch you in a transaction and manage to snag that password, they only get that small chunk of the loot. Of course the original dispersal accounts can all be linked to the transfer account from the stolen account by reading the blockchain, but that's when you get busy obfuscating the wallets you intend to use for real world activity. Do it right and there's no way for any one hacking or police action to get more than a small fraction of the whole thing.

That being said, most criminals don't get the "do it right" part.