Bitcoin as Ransom Payment
With the whole 'WannaCry' ransomware saga behind us I unfortunately keep seeing similar stories popping up. Those stories have 2 elements in common: a criminal motive and bitcoin as ransom payment. This isn't new by any means but this could have ugly consequences in our attempts to get bitcoin to become mainstream.
HBO Data Leaks
Last week I read on a forum that HBO got hacked. HBO actually hosts one of my favourite TV-shows of all time, Game of Thrones. It was rumoured that an episode that hadn’t aired yet got leaked (episode 4). I was extremlely sceptical at first and decided to check for myself only to conclude that it actually got leaked.
That shocked me for a little bit. That a major business got hacked like that.
A group hackers using the name ‘Mr. Smith’ leaked the data and is threatening to leak even more data and content if HBO doesn’t pay the desired ransom amount in BITCOIN. HBO has stated that it’s investigating the matter and is working hard with security experts and the police.
The contents of the leak doens’t merely include full episodes but also scripts of episodes to come and email data from HBO employees.
To prevent more leaks the hackers demanded HBO to pay 6 million dollars in BITCOIN.
To be continued…
Kidnapped Model nearly got auctioned for bitcoin?!
Earlier this week I read a shocking story about a 20-year old model who got kidnapped and nearly got sold into sexual slavery for BITCOIN. British model Chloe Ayling got attacked last month and abducted by a gang of Dark Web criminals. She was to be auctioned on the Dark Web if her agency didn’t pay the required 300,00$ in BITCOIN for her release. Luckily for the young British model the criminals had a rule not to abduct mothers and since Ayling had a young son she eventually was released. One of her aggressors, Lukasz Herba, was apprehended and is currenly in custody awaiting further investigation.
Perfect medium for ransom
The stories above are without a doubt shocking but we musn’t forget that it’s only a small percentage of the bitcoin transactions. Criminality will always be around as long as people inhabit this earth. However, these stories are very bad for Bitcoin’s image and can be a major obstacle in the scaling of Bitcoin to the bigger public.
The more of this news get's out the more people will be sceptical and hesitant to get involved. Let's hope we get more positive news out to the world than negative.
Nice post, i totally agree with you that this is not a welcome development on the side of bitcoin. But as you know there will always be the"bad guys". And to me its also a wakeup call for others to fully apply the necessarily security measure in order to avoid futher attacks. Following you. You can also check my post
Thanks for the support and follow! I agree that additional security measures has to be taken in order to avoid such leaks or hacks. Especially in today's society. Checked your profile out and you seem to have interesting content. Followed.