Another Bitcoin exchange halts transfers over website issues

Earlier this week, I reported on Bitcoin exchange MT. Gox suspending all withdrawal transactions over a long-known bug that allows nefarious users to basically make incoming transactions appear as if they never completed. Today word has came down that another Bitcoin exchange, Bitstamp has also suspended withdrawal transactions, but this time the issue is not due to a software bug, but rather was the result of a Denial of Service Attack (DDOS).

Bitstamp is the largest of several exchanges used for trading Bitcoins, and actually trades a little higher than Mt. Gox on average, making it a big target for attacks like these. At the time of this writing, Bitcoins were trading for $656 each, $100 higher than Mt. Gox. No further information was given on the DDOS attack, or any clue as to where it originated from, but with Bitcoins becoming more popular by the day, we can expect to see these types of attacks begin showing up more frequently.