Over 100 Physical Attacks Against Bitcoin Holders And Infrastructure Recorded Since 2014

There have been a minimum of 100 bodily assaults in opposition to Bitcoin holders or infrastructure facilitating BTC transactions, a current listing documenting all recorded assaults on June 12 reveals. The listing data all identified bodily assaults on BTC holders or amenities, together with crypto ATMs, as early as 2014.

Over 100 Recorded Bodily Assaults Towards Bitcoin Holders

The listing revealed on GitHub, a public code repository, and shared by Bitcoin supporter Jameson Lopp, the chief technical officer of Casa, reveals that the primary recorded assault on BTC was in 2014 when Hal Finney fell sufferer. Finney was one the primary supporters of Bitcoin who was additionally in contact with Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious founding father of the cryptocurrency.

In accordance with circulated information on that day, Finney was “SWATed” after months of on-line harassment. Being “SWATed” is a cybercrime the place the attacker studies a false crime to the police. The SWAT workforce responds and invades the alleged perpetrator’s dwelling solely to find that the caller had lied in regards to the crime. 

In 2014, an unknown particular person attacked Finney and demanded 1,000 BTC in trade for not releasing his private info. Finney didn’t pay, and the ransom attacker launched his dwelling deal with to the general public whereas calling the police to say that the Bitcoin supporter wished to kill himself. This was months earlier than Finney handed away in August 2014.

One other notable occasion occurred in 2015 when thieves within the Netherlands stole two Bitcoin ATMs. Two years later, in 2017, Lopp grew to become a sufferer when he was “SWATed” and extorted for his Bitcoin.

 On this case, the attacker known as the police, alleging that not Lopp had shot his spouse. The attacker had tried to extort 100 Bitcoin, value almost $700,000, in late 2017 earlier than deciding to have Lopp “SWATed.”

Crypto Is Digital And Transactions Traceable

There’s a false impression amongst new customers, thieves, or attackers that Bitcoin is a bodily asset, extra like money that may be stolen. Nonetheless, for attackers who didn’t do their groundwork, together with those that stole the crypto ATM in 2015, the digital nature of cryptocurrencies means coin holders should first approve a transaction by signing utilizing their non-public keys. 

With out non-public keys, the attacker can’t steal cash. Furthermore, the clear nature of crypto transactions benefits the sufferer since, on reporting the matter to legislation enforcement, their property may be trailed. 

On a number of events, hackers, particularly of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, have ended up reversing funds for dangers of their id being revealed because of the clear nature of the underlying blockchains in Ethereum or the BNB Chain.

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