Download the latest Audio Mp3, music Lyrics, Videos

If you find a Bitcoin lying around in a pile of wires, you're rich Rejoice everyone, it is that time of the year again. This week's edition of Tech Tent is our annual festive quiz - and although I am writing this before taking part on one of the teams, I suspect that Bitcoin will feature among the questions. What a year it has been for the crypto-currency, which started 2017 worth less than $1,000 and by last weekend had climbed to within a few dollars of the $20,000 mark. For all of that period, sceptics have been predicting that the bubble would burst and in the past 24 hours it has seemed at times that this was happening. The price, which has been sinking all week, fell more than 10% in a matter of hours, dipping towards $13,000 before staging a partial recovery. Though as someone commented, it is moving so fast, any Bitcoin article is out of date five minutes after it is written. What is worrying is that we are at the stage in a

Entrepreneur Alessandra Sollberger funded her nutrition start-up off the back of an investment in Bitcoin. But as Rory Cellan-Jones hears, it may be too late for others to follow in her steps.

Bitcoin can be purchased online or via special ATMs A New York woman has been accused of laundering bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and wiring the money to help the so-called Islamic State. Zoobia Shahnaz, 27, was charged with bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and money laundering and is being held without bail. Ms Shahnaz was born in Pakistan and worked as a lab technician in the US. Prosecutors say she took out fraudulent loans of $85,000 (£63,000) in order to buy the bitcoin online. Bitcoin is an online currency. Despite not being legal tender - it can't be used to pay for traditional goods and services - the value of bitcoin has rocketed this year. What is Bitcoin? It has been exploited by criminals to launder money. British authorities are pushing to increase regulation of the currency. According to court records, Ms Shahnaz, who lives in Brentwood on Long Island, was a lab technician at a Manhattan hospital until June. Prosecutors said

Image copyright GETTY IMAGES Image caption It is not known who was behind the mining operation Starbucks has acknowledged that visitors to one of its branches were unwittingly recruited into a crypto-currency mining operation. The wi-fi service provided by one of the coffee chain's Buenos Aires outlets surreptitiously hijacked connected computers to use their processing power to create digital cash. Starbucks said that it had taken "swift action" to address the problem. But one expert said it highlighted the risks of using public wi-fi. It is not clear how long the malware involved was active or how many customers were affected. The issue was identified only when the chief executive of a New York-based technology company logged into the service and noticed the problem. Skip Twitter post by @imnoah Hi  @Starbucks   @StarbucksAr  did you know that your in-store wifi provider in Buenos Aires forces a 10 second delay when you first connect to the wifi

NiceHash was targeted by hackers in the early hours of Wednesday "Highly professional" t:hackers made off with around 4,700 Bitcoin from a leading mining service, a Bitcoin exchange has said. The value of Bitcoin is currently extremely volatile, but at the time of writing, the amount stolen was worth approximately $80m. The hacked service was NiceHash, a Slovenia-based mining exchange. It said it was working hard to recover the Bitcoin for its users, adding: "Someone really wanted to bring us down." The attack happened early on Wednesday, said NiceHash's chief executive Marko Kobal. Attackers accessed the company's systems at 01:18 CET (00:18 GMT). By 03:37 the hackers, whom the company believes were based outside the European Union, had begun stealing Bitcoin. The theft comes as the price of Bitcoin continues to surge, dumbfounding experts and stoking concerns of a bubble. High-stakes attacks like this are not uncommon

Bitcoin is valuable but hard to mine so many  are now turning to other crypto-coins  Bitcoin's booming value has driven a huge rise in crypto-currency themed malware, say security firms. In one month, anti-malware software company Malwarebytes said it stopped almost 250 million attempts to place coin-mining malware on to PCs. Symantec said it had seen a "tenfold" increase in the amount of malicious code connected with crypto-cash. Cyber-thieves are using both dedicated software, hacked websites and emails to snare victims. Cashing in "There's been a huge spike," said Candid Wuest, a threat researcher at online security firm Symantec, adding that it had been caused by the rapid increase in Bitcoin's value. On 29 November, the value of one Bitcoin surpassed $10,000 (£7,943) - a massive increase on the $1,000 each one was worth at the start of 2017, although that figure has  now fallen back sharply. "With $10,000 being breached, and

Investors should be aware of the risks from the rapid rise in the price of digital currency Bitcoin, a Bank of England deputy governor has warned. Bitcoin's value passed a record $11,000 (£8,200) on Wednesday after a sharp but often volatile rise this year. Sir Jon Cunliffe, the Bank's deputy for financial stability, said that when prices grow so fast, "investors should do their homework and think carefully". But he added that Bitcoin's rise was not big enough to unsettle the economy. Unlike traditional currencies, Bitcoin is not issued by a central bank or government. What's behind the Bitcoin gold rush? Bitcoin crosses $10,000 milestone Bitcoin hit a high of $11,377 on one major exchange on Wednesday, an increase of more than 1,000% from the start of the year. The digital currency - which works like virtual tokens - has fluctuated wildly since it was launched in 2009. Critics have said it is going through a bubble similar to the