Bitcoin Ransoms Are Becoming More Popular in Kidnappings
Two different kidnappings in two different parts of the world have taken the world of illicit Bitcoin activities to a new level. Long discussed as the currency of the Silk Road, the online drug marketplace only accessible via Tor, it appears a new, more violent criminal is turning towards the digital currency to get away with kidnapping. The most recent example, the kidnapping of a Hong Kong tycoon once charged with fraud, Wong Kwan. The kidnappers threatened to scrape out the eyeballs or chop off the legs of the Pearl Oriental Oil chairman if his family did not cough up a HK$70 million....
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Australian executives in the traditional finance are starting to get a bad taste in their mouths concerning Bitcoin. It seems that cyber-attacks involving digital currency ransoms are on the rise in the Aussie region, and banks are taking them seriously. On September 21, 2015, Australian banks sent letters to 17 native Bitcoin companies explaining that they would be terminating the companies’ bank accounts. The news came unexpectedly, and the banks gave no reasoning to why they sent these letters. We now know. Many people have heard of hacking attacks this past year involving Bitcoin....
Several of London’s largest banks are stocking up on Bitcoin in order to pay off cyber criminals who threaten to bring down their critical IT systems, say IT experts. The banks are now coming to terms with the view that it is cheaper to pay off criminals than risk ferocious cyber attacks on a high scale. According to a Guardian report, paying ransoms with Bitcoin seems the better way to go because even though senior police officers have been made aware of the practice, the police do not have the resources to deal with the significant growth in the number of cyber attacks. Dr Simon Moores,....
Police in the Netherlands are appealing for witnesses to find a person who is planting explosives and requesting a bitcoin ransom. According to the police, the first attacks took place in May, when the perpetrator placed explosive devices in three different Jumbo supermarkets - a chain of stores belonging to the Van Eerd Group - in Groningen, the largest city in the north of the country. Subsequent attacks followed in June and July when the offender sent a congratulatory card containing a small amount of explosive substance to another supermarket in Zwolle, a small town in the province of....
France has emerged as a focal point in a growing wave of kidnappings that, increasingly, appear tied to crypto assets. According to authorities, there have been 41 cases this year alone, reflecting a sharp escalation of a wider international trend often referred to as “wrench attacks.” The link between the attacks and crypto exposure has […]