New Snowden leak: NSA intercepts Bitcoin wallets’ data

New documents published by whistleblower Edward Snowden suggest that the National Security Agency of the United States has used a special VPN service, baiting various people who wanted to anonymize their presence online. By using different cutting-edge data interception techniques, law enforcers primarily hoped to eavesdrop on communications of Al Qaeda.

The Bitcoin wallets of those who used this system titled MONKEYROCKET in the documents have been jeopardized. The scale of the program leads to believe that some of affected wallets might still be under surveillance (documents date back to 2013).

For those who value historical records, some information regarding LibertyReserve, a financial organization which traded digital assets which some media even calls Bitcoin predecessors, is also present in the batch of the leaked files. As a reminder, the chief manager of LibertyReserve has been arrested and received a sentence of 20 years in prison in 2016.

MONKEYROCKET aside, the NSA has an additional opportunity to intercept Internet traffic through fiber optic connections. This is nothing new for those who follow the topic of Snowden leaks.

Interesting to note how the work of the NSA largely stayed in the shadows before Snowden leaks and cryptocurrencies have been largely thought to be uncontrollable and completely anonymous, while the law enforcement actually invented how to deal with them already in 2013, if not before.