Kidnappers in France target cryptocurrency entrepreneurs for ransom


French police rescued the father of a wealthy cryptocurrency entrepreneur in a nighttime raid after he was taken hostage for ransom, the latest alleged criminal effort in France to extort people involved in the management of digital assets.

The man was kidnapped Thursday morning in Paris, the prosecutor’s office said Sunday. “The victim turned out to be the father of a man who made his fortune in cryptocurrencies, and the incident was accompanied by a ransom demand,” its statement said, without giving their names or other specifics about their identities. Police investigators located the hostage in a house in the Essonne region south of Paris, from which he was rescued on Saturday night, the prosecutor’s office said.

Read more…
Source: AP News


Sign up for our Newsletter
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox.


Related:

  • Automotive giant Denso confirms hack, Pandora ransomware group takes credit

    March 14, 2022

    Denso has confirmed a cyberattack impacting the firm’s German operations. The company is a global supplier of automotive components, including those developed for autonomous vehicle features, connectivity, and mobility services. Denso says that its technologies are used in “almost all vehicles around the globe.” Clients include Toyota, Honda, General Motors, and Ford. Consolidated revenue in the 2020-2021 ...

  • Spam website set up to reach millions of Russians

    March 12, 2022

    A Norwegian computer expert has created a website enabling anyone to send an email about the war in Ukraine to up to 150 Russian email addresses at a time, so that Russian people have a chance to hear the truth their government is hiding. All over Russia email inboxes are pinging. Millions of messages are being received ...

  • Bridgestone Americas confirms ransomware attack, LockBit leaks data

    March 11, 2022

    A cyberattack on Bridgestone Americas, one of the largest manufacturers of tires in the world, has been claimed by the LockBit ransomware gang. The threat actor announced that they will leak all data stolen from the company and launched a countdown timer, which is currently at less than three hours. Bridgestone has tens of production units across ...

  • NetWalker ransomware affiliate extradited to the US for further charges

    March 11, 2022

    The NetWalker ransomware gang affiliate who was sentenced to seven years in prison by Canadian courts at the end of January was extradited to the United States on Wednesday, where he will face further charges related to his participation in the gang. Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a Canadian citizen, received the Canadian prison sentence after he pleaded guilty ...

  • Corporate website contact forms used to spread BazarBackdoor malware

    March 10, 2022

    The stealthy BazarBackdoor malware is now being spread via website contact forms rather than typical phishing emails to evade detection by security software. BazarBackdoor is a stealthy backdoor malware created by the TrickBot group and is now under development by the Conti ransomware operation. This malware provides threat actors remote access to an internal device that ...

  • Latin e-commerce giant Mercado Libre hacked

    March 10, 2022

    Latin American e-commerce company Mercado Libre had its systems hacked in an incident that exposed information related to 300,000 users of the platform. The NASDAQ-listed company disclosed the incident in an 8-K filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, noting that part of its source code had been subject to unauthorized access, exposing user data. The ...