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:

  • Biden warns of US ‘cyber’ response after Ukraine says computers wiped during attack

    January 20, 2022

    US President Joe Biden responded forcefully to reports of a wide-ranging cyberattack on Ukrainian government systems Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters that the US would respond with its own cyberattacks if Russia continues to target Ukraine’s digital infrastructure. “The question is if it’s something significantly short of an…invasion or major military forces coming across,” Biden said in ...

  • Campaigns abusing corporate trusted infrastructure hunt for corporate credentials on ICS networks

    January 19, 2022

    In 2021, Kaspersky ICS CERT experts noticed a growing number of anomalous spyware attacks infecting ICS computers across the globe. Although the malware used in these attacks belongs to well-known commodity spyware families, these attacks stand out from the mainstream due to a very limited number of targets in each attack and a very short lifetime ...

  • CISA: Implement Cybersecurity Measures Now to Protect Against Potential Critical Threats

    January 18, 2022

    Every organization in the United States is at risk from cyber threats that can disrupt essential services and potentially result in impacts to public safety. Over the past year, cyber incidents have impacted many companies, non-profits, and other organizations, large and small, across multiple sectors of the economy. Most recently, public and private entities in Ukraine ...

  • New Ransomware Spotted: White Rabbit and Its Evasion Tactics

    January 18, 2022

    Thrend Micro researchers spotted the new ransomware family White Rabbit discretely making a name for itself by executing an attack on a local US bank in December 2021. This newcomer takes a page from Egregor, a more established ransomware family, in hiding its malicious activity and carries a potential connection to the advanced persistent threat ...

  • DHL, Microsoft, WhatsApp top phishing list of most imitated brands

    January 17, 2022

    DHL took over the top spot of Check Point Research’s list of the most imitated brands among cybercriminals this year, surpassing Microsoft and Google as the brand used most often in phishing emails and scams. The company’s Q4 Brand Phishing Report for 2021 ranks the top 10 most imitated brands in October, November and December. Researchers ...

  • Earth Lusca Employs Sophisticated Infrastructure, Varied Tools and Techniques

    January 17, 2022

    Since mid-2021, Trend Micro researchers have been investigating a rather elusive threat actor called Earth Lusca that targets organizations globally via a campaign that uses traditional social engineering techniques such as spear phishing and watering holes. The group’s primary motivation seems to be cyberespionage: the list of its victims includes high value targets such as ...