Bitcoin 'bomb' alert in airport

[onlinedragon]

Yes, also criminals will realize bitcoin is a better way to recieve money, the change of being cought is bigger if you say deposit the money on a bank account you will get caught.

In holland there was also a case where a man demanded bitcoins, where he would planr bombs in the jumbo supermarkets,  you can look it up on google.

Yeah it was really big news here in the Netherlands. They caught the person even small bombs were found to pressure the Supermarket 'Jumbo' to pay him.

[coinzat]

The question is, could these types of threats sink the Bitcoin project itself?

I do not think that would happen. this is not the first time for bitcoin to be mentioned in a bad news and it is still alive after that.
bitcoin is like any other currency. it can be used in good ways and bad ones. what determine that is the owner of it only

[Raimonn]

Seems as an scam made for a newbie user, airports have big security controls and police wouldn't believe this. The scammer wanted to make fast money, i think that airports had a lot of bomb alerts pranks and don't appears on newspapers, it was on newspaper because asked for bitcoins.

[monsanto]

This type of stuff is gonna get more and more common. Not actual terrorism/ violence, but the threat of it. If you were an asshole then why not? There's nothing to lose.

I agree.  It has to only be a matter of time before lunatics start building fake/real bombs that can only be defused with a code received after a bitcoin payment.  They wouldn't necessarily have to threaten people either.  They could place devices next to things of value.  A rich guy might pay a lot to have a bomb defused that's stuck to his Ferrari.  Or a museum where something that looks like a bomb is left next to a priceless work of art, etc.  Basically extending ransomware into the physical world. 

Reminds me a little of the bombing of Harvey's Resort Hotel:

https://youtu.be/1YTmDEQWY2A

[Nameless Coin]

The question is, could these types of threats sink the Bitcoin project itself?

I do not think that would happen. this is not the first time for bitcoin to be mentioned in a bad news and it is still alive after that.
bitcoin is like any other currency. it can be used in good ways and bad ones. what determine that is the owner of it only

Bitcoin is constantly on the news with bad things, but the media is just making it bad, and the bitcoin indeed still exist so it does not matter.
I think some people also want to influence but the media is also the problem because its stops the bitcoin from growing to a bigger better bitcoin.

[Nomad88]

Of course it is bad thing. On the other hand, some can argue that there is not such a thing as bad advertising. I think it also proves how anonym bitcoin is. Definitely not %100 but i guess it is close with mixers. While i was reading the post, i realized that it would be a great movie script with this case. Perhaps we might see one in the future.

[n0ne]

Prank or not, it's once again Bitcoin that's receiving the hate of the media. I wonder what new nonsense policy governments will force through when something like this happens for real.

These kind of funny or pranks will degrade the value and growth of bitcoin. At times if due to some changes bitcoin gets more adoption and overcomes the local currencies surely governments will indicate such incidents and try to terminate it.

[owm123]

Such demands probably get only worse.

After some hospital in USA payed ransom in Bitcoin, now everyone can start sending emails demanding ransom in Bitcoin about bombs, etc. And police cant just ignore them. And press will just keep writing stories like this.

[DebitMe]

This is really too bad.  It is the few that give bitcoin a bad name.  Its also sad that people don't realize that if it wasn't bitcoin, it would be something else.  These type of things will always be done, regardless of if bitcoin is involved, and the mainstream media just ends up painting bitcoin as worse than the culprit.

[DimensionZ]

This is the first time I have heard of Bitcoin used as ransom against bombing an airport and it's a terrible prank imagine how many people could have been harmed if that turned out to be true. These kinds of fake threats give the real criminals more ideas for their next attacks.

[pocarime32]

In my country indonesia also have kind of that bomb criminal using bitcoin for payment. But do you guys think this situation make bitcoins more popular but in bad mode.

[NorrisK]

This is the first time I have heard of Bitcoin used as ransom against bombing an airport and it's a terrible prank imagine how many people could have been harmed if that turned out to be true. These kinds of fake threats give the real criminals more ideas for their next attacks.

Even if this is a prank, it will still hurt the image of bitcoin. Coupling this to recent events with hospital files encrypted and other stuff like that, the general public could get a more negative image of bitcoin all together.

It takes some understanding of bitcoin to realize that the same thing could've been done with fiat and is happening with fiat all the time.

Biggest reason they are now shifting to bitcoin is the easy of "accepting" the transaction. You don't want a pile of cash with a couple of police offers and bomb squats on your back.

Most likely it is an empty threat anyway. Threatening to do something at a high security place is something completely different than hacking hospital files and the hospital confirming their files are compromised. Anybody can make threats, and although they should not be taken lightly, payment is unwise in my opinion.

[qiwoman2]

This shows that there are many that want actually derail Bitcoins's positive image and it may spark off unwarranted fears that Bitcoin may be used for terrorist activities. I guess evne if that were so, fiat has been used to conduct wars and atrocities for centuries and nothing has been done about that and fiat is still controlling billions of lives.

[Lutzow]

Bitcoin may sound negative to the media but if there's no bitcoin they'll probably have it in FIAT anyway. Bitcoin like all the other coins out there is only a tool to transfer money, it's up to the criminals which mode of payment will they prefer. I'm seeing such like this as a chance for some altcoins to get some attention like "ransom of 100000 xxxcoin or else.."

[offlinedragon]

Criminals and bad people are using bitcoin because of the simplicity of using it, You can't blame bitcoin just like that though since this is the fault of those abusing it in such a way...

[RodeoX]

A bright spot in this type of threat is the difficulty of the operational phase. One can make a threat to do something like this with total anonymity. But to carry out the attack would be to greatly expose yourself after having tipped off the authorities. The sentence for such an act would be very severe and probably would not pass a cost benefit analysis.  

[monsanto]

A bright spot in this type of threat is the difficulty of the operational phase. One can make a threat to do something like this with total anonymity. But to carry out the attack would be to greatly expose yourself after having tipped off the authorities. The sentence for such an act would be very severe and probably would not pass a cost benefit analysis.  

I think the point is not to carry out the attack, but gain from the mere threat.  Like ransomware, most people probably don't pay, but if you make enough attempts some will.  It's true, the cost per attempt is higher than ransomware, but it isn't as high as an actual attack.  The use of fake bombs could greatly increase the chance of payment.  Extortion in general is made so much easier when the problem of money transfer is removed.  That really seems like the biggest issue in extortion.

[RodeoX]

A bright spot in this type of threat is the difficulty of the operational phase. One can make a threat to do something like this with total anonymity. But to carry out the attack would be to greatly expose yourself after having tipped off the authorities. The sentence for such an act would be very severe and probably would not pass a cost benefit analysis.  

I think the point is not to carry out the attack, but gain from the mere threat.  Like ransomware, most people probably don't pay, but if you make enough attempts some will.  It's true, the cost per attempt is higher than ransomware, but it isn't as high as an actual attack.  The use of fake bombs could greatly increase the chance of payment.  Extortion in general is made so much easier when the problem of money transfer is removed.  That really seems like the biggest issue in extortion.

Oh yeah, I agree. But unlike ransomware an attack can not be carried out without risk of exposure. With a cryptolocker ransom the actual hostage taking is also accomplished without exposure. There is no calling the attackers bluff with a ransomware operation because they can prove they are not bluffing.

[ahpku]

The question is, could these types of threats sink the Bitcoin project itself?

Impossible. Bitcoin is antifragile; unsinkable. Much like Titanic

[vodaljepa]

Of course anything to make bitcoin look bad, what's new