An Open Letter To Stefan Thomas
Stefan,
We are Unciphered: an advanced cryptocurrency recovery company founded to solve a problem encountered by many early crypto enthusiasts. A problem so pervasive that it has its own meme.
"Not your Keys, Not your Coins."
We don't agree. Unciphered realizes that no subject as complex as property rights (or legal ownership) can or should be broken down into something as trivial as 'who can solve a specific math equation'. And that’s why we look forward to helping you (and others like you) get back what is rightfully yours—your coins. Unciphered consists of some of the brightest and most experienced individuals in their field. We are a collection of reverse engineers, cryptographers, analysts, and legal minds. We've invested millions of dollars into building the technological and legal infrastructure to do so.
Breaking into secure hardware is hard. Breaking into a device rated for FIPS-140-2 level 3 (like your IronKey). That's bordering on impossible.
The majority of devices certified to this level of protection are used and certified to store sensitive government information. [^1].
Internally, when we first embarked on this journey, we decided to call it Project Everest. We knew it would be tough to get to the top. But we also knew what it would take. We started by reverse engineering all of the inter-chip communication protocols, then the firmware of the controller and cryptographic implementation details, and ultimately pieced together all aspects of how your device works.
Next, we pored over everything we knew about your device, utilizing expertise from some of the top hardware hackers, crypto mathematicians, and exploit developers in the industry, looking for any sign of weakness. Spoiler alert: we found one.
We got in.
After we had performed this feat the first time, we trained and practiced. We rehearsed. We needed to ensure every aspect of the hack was repeatable. And since then, we have repeated this process thousands of times.
After that, Andy Greenberg from Wired and [REDACTED] from [REDACTED] visited our lab to review our work.
After providing an overview of the entire process, they agreed to initialize and lock a handful of Iron Keys. Then, they handed them over to our team and went to lunch.
I'd like to say we had them open before they returned, but real life doesn't always work out like the movies. We did open one device before [REDACTED]'s plane touched down on the return flight, though. And the second fell shortly after that.
Though there are always caveats, this is not theoretical. We can do it; we've done it many times before - for WIRED, for our partners, and others. And we can do it again. You don't have to take our word for it. You can ask WIRED. And if that's not enough, we would be happy to demonstrate it on as many samples in a row as it takes for you (and everyone) to feel confident before moving forward.
You've waited over a decade for this moment, and we're here to make it happen together.
We'd love to talk,
Eric Michaud, CEO of Unciphered And The Unciphered Team
[1]: https://ciphertex.com/what-is-fips-140-2-level-3/
[2]: https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~sps32/IronKey_teardown.pdf
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CONTACT FOR ALL PRESS INQUIRIES:
Ed Zitron
Director of Marketing
NOTE: We are, where necessary, using redactions to conceal the identities of certain individuals and entities that were part of this process that cannot be named due to existing agreements or obligations.
