As is well known, the Bitcoin for years fierce criticism has been attracted as it is considered one ideal tool for the criminal economy. A thesis adopted by a part of traditional finance and by public security authorities, who have dedicated a large number of publications and symposia over the years to the topic.
The confidentiality profiles provided by cryptocurrencies, in fact, can prove to be an aid for those who intend to make payments or move capital of dubious origin, perhaps to feed acts of terrorism or traffic in narcotics without leaving a trace.
A thesis, that of not traceability, which was also disputed by the advocates of digital assets, as it every operation made on Blockchain is recorded and is always available to those who request the data. A reassurance that does not seem to have affected the security of the bad guys, at least judging from what happened in Russia.
Lenta hypermarkets under attack
A Russian site has stated in the past few days that the Lenta supermarket network, which can boast almost 400 points of sale located throughout the country, a disturbing video would have been delivered, bearing the threat of a poisoning of food products sold internally if a ransom of 500 thousand dollars is not paid, in Bitcoin.
The top management immediately proceeded to deliver the video to the police authorities, who discovered how it was sent using an email address from the same company's call center. It can therefore be deduced that the person in charge may be a person operating within the structure or at least in possession of the access data.
Furthermore, the Ministry of the Interior confirmed the truthfulness of what was stated by the Russian site, which in turn released a statement stating that the measures aimed at preventing something serious from happening have been put in place, like a food poisoning that could spread great concern in the population and damage an important economic operator.
Even the United States has seen similar cases in the past
What is happening in Russia however, it is not a real preview. In the recent past, in fact, in the United StatesIn Baltimore and Florida, hackers blocked entire administrative offices, tampering with computers, demanding a ransom in BTC to unlock the network. With Russian events, however, cybercrime seems to be taking a vI was just a leap in quality able to arouse considerable concern in the authorities. As a demonstration that Bitcoin could actually prove to be the tool of criminal activity though traditional, with the only advantage of being able to greatly simplify the collection of the ransom by the criminal gangs. A figure on which in the near future the security authorities could be asked to question, rather than the monetary ones that up to now have evoked the specter of money laundering, without suspecting that instead virtual money could prove to be a simple financial instrument, like the real money.
