Spammers have hit businesses, public and utility institutions around the world with a wave of threats, demanding a ransom from the military-technical cooperation in exchange for eliminating the threat of an explosion. So far, no explosions have been heard, but massive electronic threats have caused numerous evacuations of thousands of people in Canada, the United States and New Zealand. Law enforcement is investigating the situation and asks citizens to exercise caution.
Several examples of email threats have been released by police. A typical example of an electronic threat was posted online by the Cedar Rapids Police Department in Iowa. A letter sent to one of the offices claims that a bomb has been delivered to the “building where your business is conducted” and the only way to avoid a tragedy is to transfer $20,000 in BTC to the Bitcoin wallet address specified in the letter. There is no information yet on how many people actually paid the ransom. The Bitcoin wallets where the ransom should be sent are different, with police noting at least three different addresses.
Law enforcement agencies cannot say exactly how widespread this electronic terror has become, but ransomware warnings have already been issued throughout the United States and parts of Canada. At least one threatening letter was noted in the UK, but the connection with the American ones has not yet been proven. In Toronto, 5 subway stations were closed due to a bomb threat letter.
Over the past 72 hours, bomb threats and BTC extortion from business owners and government agencies have swept across English-speaking countries. And yesterday, a similar situation began in Asia.
The mailboxes of a number of Hong Kong companies received bomb threats extorting BTC for security. Thus, Michael Gazeley, CEO of Network Box, saw an email in his business correspondence on Friday demanding $20,000 in cryptocurrency. This message was a threat from an anonymous group that threatened to bomb the Network Box offices unless a "security fee" was sent to the address provided.
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