A Bitcoin transaction services company says that hackers broke into one of its brokerage accounts last week, nabbing more than $12,000 worth of the digital currency.

The criminals were able to take control of Bitinstant's internet domains by convincing its domain registrar, Site5, to hand over control of the company's Domain Name Service, or DNS. "Armed with knowledge of my place of birth and mother's maiden name alone (both facts easy to locate on the public record) they convinced Site5 staff to add their email address to the account and make it the primary login," the company said 4 March in a blog post detailing the incident

 Hackers pull off £8,000 Bitcoin heist