Samson Mow Shares 5 Urgent Steps for Coldcard Users Facing Losses

Bitcoin advocate Samson Mow has shared five urgent steps for users affected by the Coldcard wallet random number generator (RNG) vulnerability. The JAN3 CEO posted the recommendations on X on Aug. 1, emphasizing the need to preserve evidence, report thefts, and avoid recovery scams.

Mow described the vulnerability as potentially worse than an exchange hack, as it targeted sovereign bitcoin holders who understood the importance of self-custody. His first recommendation urged victims to document every detail, including wallet addresses, dates, firmware versions, and transaction information.

Second, Mow encouraged filing police reports with cybercrime units or national reporting portals like the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Third, he advised users to watch for coordinated efforts to track stolen funds.

Fourth, Mow stressed preserving the affected Coldcard device and seed phrase rather than destroying them, as they may be needed to prove ownership if stolen bitcoin reaches an exchange and is frozen.

His strongest warning came fifth: ignore recovery scammers. He cautioned against sharing personal details, seed phrases, or sending money to anyone promising to retrieve stolen cryptocurrency, noting the FBI’s repeated warnings about such frauds.

Mow also used the incident to reiterate the importance of reducing single points of failure in bitcoin self-custody, advocating for multi-vendor multisignature setups instead of relying on a single manufacturer. He acknowledged that self-custody is hard and urged the Bitcoin industry to be less critical of those choosing custodians, ETFs, or bitcoin treasury companies.

Coinkite, the Toronto-based company behind Coldcard, issued a security advisory urging users of affected devices to update firmware before generating new seeds and to migrate funds if seeds were created on vulnerable versions. The firm warned that firmware updates do not repair previously generated seeds.

The fallout has expanded, with affected users considering potential legal action against Coinkite and the attacker receiving an unsolicited onchain message offering bitcoin laundering services.

Source: https://news.bitcoin.com/security/samson-mow-shares-5-urgent-steps-for-coldcard-users-facing-losses/