Bitcoin Bomb Scare Associated with Sextortion Scammers
Summary: A wave of phony bomb-threat emails hit universities, schools and news outlets across the U.S. on Thursday, demanding a $20,000 Bitcoin payment and prompting evacuations and law enforcement investigations. Cisco Talos tied the campaign to an earlier sextortion operation, found 17 Bitcoin addresses used, and reported that only two had a balance, both from sub-$1 transactions on Dec. 13.
What's compelling: The attackers sent from IPs at the registrar reg.ru, likely via compromised domain credentials, and later shifted to Russian host TimeWeb while switching the threat to acid attacks - showing the same infrastructure can be re-pointed at a new story as soon as one stops paying.
Read the original at Cisco Talos ↗
- Topics
- Cybercrime & Law Enforcement
- Related
- Gootloader Malware Disrupted After Infecting 25,000 Computers Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026354 dark web vendors and buyers arrested in Operation Tor Nado Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026Law Enforcement Disrupts Gootloader, CastleRAT, and StealC Infrastructure Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026