Rule #1: If you want something to be private, don’t broadcast it (even blurred out!) on TV

BBC News reports:

Two French hackers used their computer skills to reconstruct a blurred-out code on TV and claim bitcoins worth $1,000 (£760).

Michel Sassano and Clement Storck had seen an interview with entrepreneur Roger Ver on French television.

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Mr Ver had offered $1,000 to viewers – but a QR code needed to claim the money had been blurred out.

The duo analysed a small part of the code that was visible, however, and managed to access the funds.

Here’s the French TV report (en Francais, naturellement) which contained the blurred out code:

Here’s the part of the QR code which was left unobscured for a brief moment in the report, alongside part of the blurred private key:

And here’s how Sassano and Storck managed to decode the private key.

Impressive.

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