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:
- Understanding Cloud Misconfigurations – With Pizza and Lego
February 3, 2021
Now, more than ever, the cloud is a relevant topic. Pandemic or not, businesses, schools, and other organizations have moved online and, consequently, many IT departments have had to deal with a move to the cloud. And even if this change had been on the roadmap of affected organizations, such a fast adoption of cloud ...
- Recent root-giving Sudo bug also impacts macOS
February 3, 2021
A British security researcher has discovered today that a recent security flaw in the Sudo app also impacts the macOS operating system, and not just Linux and BSD, as initially believed. The vulnerability, disclosed last week as CVE-2021-3156 (aka Baron Samedit) by security researchers from Qualys, impacts Sudo, an app that allows admins to delegate limited ...
- The State Of Ransomware, 2020’s Catch-22
February 3, 2021
A ransomware infection can put organizations in difficult situations. The damage that WannaCry and Petya have caused has made people more wary, leading to stricter and more consistent security measures against a constant threat. Developments in ransomware over the past year have made dealing with ransomware not only difficult but also a delicate matter. Aside ...
- Magento Web Skimmers Piggyback in Ongoing Costway Website Compromise
February 2, 2021
Two web skimmers have been discovered on the payment webpages of Costway, one of the top retailers in North America and Europe, which sells appliances, furniture and more. The skimmers are targeting consumers’ credit-card payment details. In a twist, researchers say one of these web skimmers is piggybacking on top of the other, to take over ...
- US federal payroll agency hacked using SolarWinds software flaw
February 2, 2021
The FBI has discovered that the National Finance Center (NFC), a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) federal payroll agency, was compromised by exploiting a SolarWinds Orion software flaw, according to a Reuters report. NFC provides human resources and payroll services to roughly 170 federal agencies and over 650,000 federal employees since 1973. The software vulnerability used to ...
- Ransomware gangs now have industrial targets in their sights
February 2, 2021
Ransomware attacks are a potential danger for any organisation, with ransomware variants including Conti, Egregor, Maze and many others still successfully compromising victims across all industries – but there are some industries that criminal gangs are targeting more than others. The ransomware attacks are successful because many organisations can’t afford for their network to be out ...