Hong Kong Hacker Is Arrested In Blackmail For Bitcoin Case

A crime story involving cryptocurrency has recently happened in Hong Kong. The suspect, a 30-year old computer technician, was charged with blackmailing and hacking today. The man was the main suspect of two cyberattacks against travel agencies in the country, Big Line Holiday and Goldjoy Holidays. Personal data that belong to customers of the agency was held for ransom by the man, who charged 1 Bitcoin for the release of the information.

The information included the names of the victims, identity card numbers, and details including passport and phone number of more than 20,000 clients.

The Case

The police told that the hacker wanted 1 BTC for the information. Experts say that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin are a way to cybercriminals get their money without being trackable. The police state that Bitcoin is harder to track and easy to transfer, so many cybercrimes might feel tempted to ask for money in cryptocurrency instead of fiat currency.

Police officers from the Hong Kong’s Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau have raided the apartment of the suspect and arrested him on January 6. The police officers seized two desktop computers, two laptops, a tablet and three different hard drives as evidence.

The suspect hacked the agencies during the New Year's Day. The police suspect that the man took advantage of the weakened security during this date to hack it more easily. As soon as he got the information, the author of the attacks sent an email to both the companies asking for the money in ransom for the information. The suspect was later identified by the police, which has tracked his IP.

The suspect was still not charged for the crime at the time of this report. The police is still questioning and it does not rule out the possibility for more arrests.

Both agencies have emitted apologies to their custmers for the incident and swore to improve their online security against hacking.

Will Cryptocurrency Be Used For Ransom In The Future?

Hong Kong has recorded more than 6,000 cases of cybercrimes in 2016 alone and it does not seem like this number will stop growing soon.

Many criminals have started to ask for ransom in Bitcoin or other altcoins. Will this be normal in the future? This is a possibility. Follow our blog for more news about cryptocurrency.