A hacker is holding computer systems belonging to the southern Spanish city of Jerez de la Frontera, demanding a Bitcoin ransom to unlock them, RFI reports.
The ransomware attack, which reportedly began on Tuesday night, has already caused service outages for the city’s website.
There’s currently no indication of the amount of Bitcoin the hacker is demanding.
AFP notes that Spain‘s interior ministry has sent three computer experts to the city, the home of sherry, to help resolve the situation.
The city’s mayor indicated that the site would only be brought back online when its confirmed to be 100-percent secure.
This situation comes just days after the US Federal Bureau of Investigation shared a public service announcement regarding the increasing severity of ransomware attacks on businesses and organizations.
As well, last month saw Texas refuse to bow to ransomware demands. Officials revealed they had successfully recovered more than half of the systems that had been locked in a similar attack without paying a Satoshi.
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Australian cryptocurrency scams earned $4.3 million last year, up 190%
Australian fraudsters earned $4.3 million (AU$6.1 million) with cryptocurrency scams last year—a revenue increase of 190 percent when compared to 2017.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC)’s new report details the extent of the nation’s problem with cryptocurrency fraud.
In total, it fielded 674 reports of scams that requested cryptocurrency for payments in 2018.
Almost half of of all losses were reported by men aged 25 to 34, and over 80 percent were contacted via the internet (social media, forums, or email).
The most successful cryptocurrency scam category was investment fraud, with $1.8 million (AU$2.6 million) in reported losses.
“To avoid the fraud and scam detection systems employed by banks, scammers are now increasingly asking for payment via unusual payment methods such as gift cards and cryptocurrencies,” wrote the ACCC.
Some victims reported being tricked into buying cryptocurrency through the scammer‘s own software, but when they tried to cash out, they were either unable to make contact or were given excuses.
Other scams requested payment in cryptocurrency for forex and commodities trading, and other investment ‘opportunities.’
“Scamwatch has also received reports from victims of various types of scams being directed by a scammer to the nearest Bitcoin automatic teller machine to convert money to Bitcoin and then transfer it to the scammer,” said the ACCC.
Last year, Hard Fork reported scammers had defrauded four Australian immigrants of $35,000 (AU$50,000). Imposters threatened deportation unless they deposited cash into specific Bitcoin ATMs to pay off non-existent tax debt.
Overall, incidents of the scammers impersonating the Australian Tax Office rose an eye-watering 900 percent by late 2018, with tens of thousands of reports surfacing of an automated ‘robo-calls.’
The ACCC received 177,516 scam reports last year, worth a combined $75 million (AU$107 million.) So, while revenue generated by cryptocurrency scammers increased, it still represents a small fraction of Australia’s fraud.
Apple iTunes cards remained the most requested form of payment, with demands for other gift cards (as well as Google Play) increasing rapidly.
The report warned the international nature of fraud today can make bringing scammers to justice incredibly difficult. This renders education and public awareness the primary defence.
The ACCC maintains a “Little Black Book of Scams” featuring many examples and case studies, which you can find here .
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Nearly half of the world’s top universities teach blockchain
Eight out of the top 10 universities that offer blockchain courses are based in the US, according to a new report compiled by popular cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase .
The research has more broadly uncovered that 42 percent of the world’s top universities offer at least one academically endorsed course.
Leading the way is Stanford which offers 10 blockchain-based courses. Cornell University, and the University of Pennsylvania take up second and third place by offering nine and six blockchain courses, respectively.
There are only two universities in the top ten that aren’t based in the US. The National University of Singapore placed fourth on the list with five courses, and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich came in seventh, with three courses.
Courses are not limited to computer sciences as one might think. Rather, they are being offered across a range of disciplines for those on major’s from anthropology to finance. If anything, this is an indication of blockchain’s perceived breadth of application, and how it is expected to impact a variety of areas of society.
This has been a growing trend, back in 2014 NYU Stern (the university’s business college) launched a cryptocurrency course, with the help from David Yermack . However, the field of academia has come a long way since then, with NYU now being ninth on the list, offering two cryptocurrency and blockchain courses.
However, some still remain perplexed as to why there is such a demand in courses of this nature.
Matt Blaze , a cryptography researcher and an associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has been critical of academia’s crypto-invasion .
“I’m puzzled by demand for degree programs in blockchain,” he said on Twitter. “It’s like having a degree in binary search trees, an at least equally important and interesting data structure.”
Universities then have not been immune to the hype around blockchain. At least in an academic setting, we can hope to see blockchain graduates approaching the field with a critical eye, supported by a strong foundation of knowledge, and rationality.
