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:

  • Ursnif Trojan has targeted over 100 Italian banks

    March 3, 2021

    The Ursnif Trojan has been traced back to attacks against at least 100 banks in Italy. According to Avast, the malware’s operators have a keen interest in Italian targets and attacks against these banking institutions have led to the loss of credentials and financial data. The cybersecurity firm said on Tuesday that at least 100 banks have ...

  • CISA Alert (AA21-062A): Mitigate Microsoft Exchange Server Vulnerabilities

    March 3, 2021

    Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security (CISA) partners have observed active exploitation of vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server products. Successful exploitation of these vulnerabilities allows an unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code on vulnerable Exchange Servers, enabling the attacker to gain persistent system access, as well as access to files and mailboxes on the server and to ...

  • Compromised Website Images Camouflage ObliqueRAT Malware

    March 2, 2021

    The ObliqueRAT malware is now cloaking its payloads as seemingly-innocent image files that are hidden on compromised websites. The remote access trojan (RAT), which has been operating since 2019, spreads via emails, which have malicious Microsoft Office documents attached. Previously, payloads were embedded into the documents themselves. Now, if users click on the attachment, they’re redirected ...

  • Ryuk Ransomware: Now with Worming Self-Propagation

    March 2, 2021

    A new version of the Ryuk ransomware is capable of worm-like self-propagation within a local network, researchers have found. The variant first emerged in Windows-focused campaigns earlier in 2021, according to the French National Agency for the Security of Information Systems (ANSSI). The agency said that it achieves self-replication by scanning for network shares, and then ...

  • Fast Flux 101: How Cybercriminals Improve the Resilience of Their Infrastructure to Evade Detection and Law Enforcement Takedowns

    March 2, 2021

    Fast flux is a technique used by cybercriminals to increase their infrastructure’s resilience by making law enforcement takedown of their servers and blocklisting of their IP addresses harder. It is critical for these cybercriminals to maintain their networks’ uptime to avoid losses to their revenue streams, including phishing and scam campaigns, botnet rental and illegal ...

  • Emotet One Month After the Takedown

    March 2, 2021

    2021 got off to a fantastic start for the cybersecurity community with the news that the infamous botnet Emotet had been brought down in a coordinated global operation, “Operation Ladybird.” As the first security vendor to detect and profile the Trojan all the way back in 2014, we’re particularly delighted to be seeing the back of ...