Mind your bitcoin or criminals will do it for you

Singapore

CRIMINALS may already have made off with up to US$500 million worth of bitcoins since the virtual currency launched in 2009 - and you can double that if it turns out they emptied Mt Gox.

Internet criminals, security specialists say, are attracted to bitcoin because of its stratospheric rise in value, because it's easier to steal than real money, and because it's easier to trade with other criminal elements. But, they add, bitcoin will survive the damage.

"It's just growing pains," says Keith Jarvis, a security researcher at Dell SecureWorks. "Bitcoin is large enough and has enough momentum behind it to survive any public relations damage from this (Mt Gox) case or anything else."

The fall of Mt Gox, the Tokyo- based exchange which filed for bankruptcy last month after saying it lost some 850,000 bitcoins to hackers, is certainly the virtual currency's biggest cr…