Canadian Teen Charged For Cryptocurrency Theft

A Montreal resident, age 18 if facing 4 criminal charges connected to a $50 million SIM Swap scam that targeted cryptocurrency holders.

“Eighteen-year-old hacker Samy Bensaci is accused of being part of a crime ring that stole millions of dollars in crypto-currency by gaining unauthorized access to the cell phones of crypto-currency holders in America and Canada.” — Infosecurity Magazine. 17th January, 2020

Among the purported victims were Don and Alex Tapscott, renowned Canadian crypto entrepreneurs and co-authors of the book “Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology Behind Bitcoin Is Changing Money, Business, and the World.”



“We can confirm that last year a hacker attempted steal crypto assets from our company and its employees,” Don Tapscott said in an email to ‘The Star’. “That attempt was unsuccessful. We cooperated with the police (and) have been impressed with their determination to bring those responsible to justice.”

Bensaci was arrested in Victoria, British Columbia, in November and charged with fraudulently obtaining computer service, committing fraud over $5,000, identity fraud, and illegally accessing computer data. In December, the teen was released on $200,000 bail and ordered to live with his parents in northeast Montreal until his next court hearing.

While staying at his parents’ residence, Bensaci is prohibited from accessing “any computer, tablet, mobile phone, game console, including PS3, PS4, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or any other device capable of accessing the Internet,” and barred from holding or trading any form of cryptocurrency.

A SIM-swapping attack befalls when the hackers are able to trick the telecom company to transfer the victim’s phone number to the attacker’s SIM card. Though it is possible to do this by imitating the victim with the telecom’s customer service, the companies are overwhelmed by insiders that use their access to facilitate this type of crime. With a SIM-swap, aggressors can evade most authentication and password recovery devices that rely on phone numbers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding Liquidity

Image
The concept of  liquidity   has many facades to it. One way to define liquidity is “the ability of an asset to be converted into cash readily on demand”. An additional way of viewing at it is when any asset can be bought or sold at its fair price. Liquidity thus means that there aren’t discounts or bonuses devoted to it during buy or sell and it’s easy to enter and exit the asset. It is believed as more of an item is accepted and sold, the chances of charging premiums or giving discounts lower and such an asset usually trades around ‘what it is worth’. The forex market is often defined as a liquid market with an average turnover of more than $5 trillion daily as of April 2016 according to the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) while real estate is a classic example of an illiquid asset. Property as an asset is less liquid, requiring huge investments into physical form, monotonous procedures and smaller market.  Liquidity is significant for any tradable  asset , wh
Read more

5 Places to Visit in Reykjavík

Image
The capital of Iceland is a young, culturally happening city, as well as a launch pad for natural wonders that people dream of seeing their whole lives. Like any cool spot Reykjavík is also constantly reinventing itself, as you can see at the Grandi Area by the Old Harbour. Here fish packing factories have been turned into sharply designed visitor attractions, while creative murals coat the walls and cutting-edge Nordic restaurants have opened. The waterfront was chosen for the cultural venue, Harpa, a monument for 21st-century Reykjavík with a mesmerising facade by Ólafur Elíasson. You could stay in Reykjavík’s cosy embrace or stride out to visit the volcanic marvels in the Golden Circle and see whales in the Faxa Bay in summer. Hallgrímskirkja: Both a parish church and Iceland’s national sanctuary, Hallgrímskirkja is an ever-present feature of Reykjavík’s skyline. Conceived in the early-1940s by Guðjón Samúelsson, the church was 41 years in the making and was finally con
Read more

Weekly News Overview: Cryptocurrency

Image
Email Extortion Scam Targets Googles AdSense A new extortion scam targeting website owners serving banner ads through Google’s AdSense program has begun circulating the Internet. The malevolent scheme demands Bitcoin (BTC) in exchange for preventing an attack, which would purportedly lead to the users’ AdSense account suspension. The email-based extortion scheme was reported by security news and investigation blog KrebsOnSecurity, on Feb. 17. The blog post detailed that some site owners received a message as their site had been spotted by the malicious program as one seeking revenue from publishing an ad. Coinbase Pitches Crypto As A Solution For Racial Discrimination To mark Black History Month, Coinbase has launched an advertising campaign with the pitch that cryptocurrencies can help tackle racial injustice in the financial sector. As part of the campaign, the exchange published a blog post on Feb. 13 with the results of a survey it conducted in
Read more