Crypto Kidnappings and Physical Attacks Are on the Rise—Here’s How to Stay Safe - Ep. 775
Episode publishedPodcast: UnchainedUnchained
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If you pop up on somebody's radar because you're engaging in risky activity, then you could live in a completely safe neighborhood. But if you you're getting specifically targeted, especially by organized crime, you know, they're not gonna necessarily care about that. They're gonna do what they can to bypass as many safeguards as possible and get to you, the high value target.
Hi, everyone. Welcome to Unchained. Your no hype resource for all things crypto. I'm your host, Laura Shin. We are now featuring quotes from listeners on the show. Today, we have one from EXP Christ on YouTube on the recent interview with a 16 Z crypto's Chris Dixon. EXP Christ writes, quote, every time you have Chris Dixon on, I'm excited because he really does represent someone who is advocating for the success of technology protocols. I think he's right that the change of administration is truly a watershed moment for the entire crypto and AI industry. This administration is technology forw
Good to be here. The
crypto world was shocked to hear about, crypto related kidnapping in Veers in France of David Ballon, a cofounder of Ledger. Although such attacks have been happening for a while in crypto, what caught more people's attention about this particular one is that the kidnappers cut off one of his fingers and sent it with their ransom to his associates. And you have been chronically in these types of attacks for years on a GitHub page, but I was curious just to hear your thoughts and reaction to hearing this particular story. Yeah.
I mean, there were a few unique aspects to this. You know, for example, in this particular case, even though the victim himself is kind of an OG in the space, it seems like the attackers were not trying to extract money from him, but rather using him as, you know, a hostage to go up the food chain, so to speak, to one of the other OG players at Ledger. And, I think this is the first time that we've heard of someone, you know, cutting off fingers as a part of ransom, but it is by no means the first time that we've heard of torture and other types of mutilation that have been used in these type
And so I wasn't aware. So they were trying to extract the ransom from what other Ledger cofounders?
Yes. My understanding is that they basically sent a video or a photo of the finger to Eric who was one of the other cofounders of Ledger and that he was really the the primary person that that they were trying to get money from. Okay.
Eric Larchabec, I guess. I don't speak French, but I'm guessing that's how you pronounce his last name. Yeah.
I'm not sure. And
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