A family in the US was taken hostage for cryptocurrency

[greysonz]

Two brothers broke into a Minnesota home, bound all family members with zip ties, and held them at gunpoint for over nine hours, demanding access to their crypto wallets.
When the head of the family failed to transfer the required amount, he was forced to go to a country house to obtain additional hardware wallets.
The brothers ultimately stole more than $8 million in cryptocurrency. They were later arrested and sentenced to 15 and 15.5 years in prison.



https://www.justice.gov/usao-mn/pr/brothers-sentenced-total-326-months-imprisonment-8-million-armed-robbery-cryptocurrency

[LFC_Bitcoin]

It feels like I see a new one of these type of stories every day. There are only certain things we can do to prevent this from happening to us.

Don’t tell people you are in to crypto, word spreads fast. The fewer people that know the better. Keep a Trezor device spare, separate to your main stash, with a smaller % of your stack on. If this type of thing happens to you, you can give up the smaller stack to appease an invader. You might escape with the majority of your money still in your possession and your life intact.

[AVE5]

Two brothers broke into a Minnesota home, bound all family members with zip ties, and held them at gunpoint for over nine hours, demanding access to their crypto wallets.
When the head of the family failed to transfer the required amount, he was forced to go to a country house to obtain additional hardware wallets.

When it get to do with crypto theft where victims are physically targeted or attacked, it's usually that the victim had somehow showed up to the public about their crypto holding which is unlike the online medium of launching attacks which we knows victim's can be targeted randomly and maliciously through phishing files to detect victims while the vulnerables falls victims either by convincing the target in any way and steal their fund's or they gains access and processes the transaction illegally from their own end.
Of course there're stories that had talked about physical robbery of bitcoins and crypto currency. Meanwhile, I've been of the interest to know how those victims where identified to be crypto currency owners but the storylines of the news didn't disclose such information. I also wondered how the thefts knew the victim has another hardware wallet that holds such amounts that only got them satisfied because the thefts acted like they knows how the victims has according to their demands.

Well, this theft incident calls for the necessity why we must not flaunt or publicly show it that we owns bitcoin else, it'll attract cases like this one in Minnesota.

[Ambatman]

I believe this is one of the crypto breach or risk that can be easily alleviated
Don't go narrating to people that you a millionaire in crypto
Not even that it's better to play it safe and not let them know you into crypto
Because many would assume you rich even if you aren't yet.
Be careful what you post online
People are watching.

[Botnake]

Same scenario, same reason. This is the very reason why we have to stay a low profile and live lowkey. Do not advertise online and offline and flex that you are holding a lot of cryptos, you can't trust the people around you especially if money is involved.

Protect your own personal information and protect your own peace and privacy. If you can make use of fake name, fake cellphone number and address, much better so that you can't be personally trace and steal your cryptos.

And lastly, do not put all your eggs in a single basket, but diversify your storage. Find another secret place to hide your coins that you're the only one knows so that it won't be visible for future thefts and attacks.

[Lucano]

I have read cases like this several times. Physical attacks will definitely occur against cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) holders who have been monitored because their privacy was leaked. This is where privacy works, we ignore privacy too much. bitcoin has designed it but nowadays privacy is no longer a priority for those who are adopting bitcoin, they are proud to show off their ownership, plus companies that adopt bitcoin do not prioritize privacy anymore

[nelson4lov]

Every time I read stories like this, it reinforces the idea that if you're in crypto and are doing well or have holdings that are valuable to you, the best thing you can do for yourself is to keep that information to yourself. It's always important to know that not everyone will have the best intentions towards. I think this applies to people we are casually friends with too.

Also good to know that the people responsible will do time.

[Davidvictorson]

They were later arrested and sentenced to 15 and 15.5 years in prison.

for me, the sentence they were arrested was what I was looking for. And that is how all crimes end which an arrest and serving prison time.
Crime doesn’t pay even if they had gone Scot free, it would only have been for a short time.
To every other person as we are taking our security online seriously, we should also extend that to our personal and home safety.

[Sanitough]

I believe this is one of the crypto breach or risk that can be easily alleviated
Don't go narrating to people that you a millionaire in crypto
Not even that it's better to play it safe and not let them know you into crypto
Because many would assume you rich even if you aren't yet.
Be careful what you post online
People are watching.

Bad guys will never know what you don't tell them, but living a life where privacy and security do not matter at all, then it won't be surprising if future crypto attacks will eventually happen and risk not just yourself but your family as well. Bitcoin is risky and dangerous to those who can't protect them, but for those who are responsible enough to safeguard their bitcoin, and live as if they have no crypto and do not know about crypto, these people will always be ignored and will not be seen as future targets or victims for crypto attacks.

[philipma1957]

Two brothers broke into a Minnesota home, bound all family members with zip ties, and held them at gunpoint for over nine hours, demanding access to their crypto wallets.
When the head of the family failed to transfer the required amount, he was forced to go to a country house to obtain additional hardware wallets.

When it get to do with crypto theft where victims are physically targeted or attacked, it's usually that the victim had somehow showed up to the public about their crypto holding which is unlike the online medium of launching attacks which we knows victim's can be targeted randomly and maliciously through phishing files to detect victims while the vulnerables falls victims either by convincing the target in any way and steal their fund's or they gains access and processes the transaction illegally from their own end.
Of course there're stories that had talked about physical robbery of bitcoins and crypto currency. Meanwhile, I've been of the interest to know how those victims where identified to be crypto currency owners but the storylines of the news didn't disclose such information. I also wondered how the thefts knew the victim has another hardware wallet that holds such amounts that only got them satisfied because the thefts acted like they knows how the victims has according to their demands.

Well, this theft incident calls for the necessity why we must not flaunt or publicly show it that we owns bitcoin else, it'll attract cases like this one in Minnesota.

there are tens of thousands of leaked trezor addresses mine is leaked> I routinely get fishing letters in the mail to my home address and my email.

My trezor is locked at the bank in a safety box  basically I can not be the only one listed as having a trezor.

[Antidote47k]

Practices like using hardware wallets, multisig and strong private key can prevent remote attacks but they don’t go as far as protecting you from being physically threatened or forced to either unlock a device or authorize a transaction.
Poeple have to be more careful of what they say and who they say it to, it would have been better if the full details of how the two brothers identified their target and learnt about the additional storage devices, the DOJ report does not explain this.
 
In any case, this was an informed attack, according to the report, an unknown third party was giving directives, the victim believed that the information may have been from a data breach center although nothing factual was established on that claim but if it where to be the case then the situations becomes even more complicated, cause that that would mean that the victim didn’t deliberately blab about his holdings.

[coinlary]

Raymond is 24 while Angelo is 25 btw, the internet is doing alot of damage on this generation fr , not to mention that they are brothers. Just below this thread I noticed another one  Richard Jhonston who stol 185 BTC, and he's just 20 yrs old.

Well, I guess this will only get worse,  the best thing to do as a Bitcoiner is to learn to keep quiet and maintain some privacy as LFC_Bitcoin mentioned. No one will attack you if no one knows you own some Bitcoin

[SatoPrincess]

The article doesn’t mention how the robbers knew the family had bitcoin. According to the report, it appears l the robbers had information of how much coins the family had in their custody. My best guess is that someone in the family posted about their crypto hodlings online or maybe shared it with someone and the news went round.

Everytime I read about one of these wrench attacks, my mind immediately goes to the bitcoin family, I don’t know how they have managed to stay safe from criminals when the whole world knows they are rich in bitcoin.

[salad daging]

It is better to be silent, than to talk about crypto in public a lot of people.😐
This is terrible news, I think this kind of news will be rare, it looks more and more events like this especially the generation of young people now determined to become robbers want to get instant money.
Especially on social media, never show your portfolio there, others will lurk and plan something that was never expected by you.

[IjawMan]

It feels like I see a new one of these type of stories every day. There are only certain things we can do to prevent this from happening to us.

Don’t tell people you are in to crypto, word spreads fast. The fewer people that know the better. Keep a Trezor device spare, separate to your main stash, with a smaller % of your stack on. If this type of thing happens to you, you can give up the smaller stack to appease an invader. You might escape with the majority of your money still in your possession and your life intact.

This was the question I was asking myself quietly , how did those two brothers got to know that the particular family have money in cryptocurrency up to the amount of $8 million dollar that they were so confident to demand forcedly.

The power of secrecy and privacy is really underrated in our present world and people are getting the consequences back at them when they cannot learn  to keep their mouth shut concerning their finances.

On the safety tip of having to keep aside a separate stash of a negligible amount to save the main stash on account of any possible attack, I completely agree with it.

[lombok]

It is better to be silent, than to talk about crypto in public a lot of people.😐
This is terrible news, I think this kind of news will be rare, it looks more and more events like this especially the generation of young people now determined to become robbers want to get instant money.
Especially on social media, never show your portfolio there, others will lurk and plan something that was never expected by you.

Holding the information about ownership of digital assets secretly is rational way to ensure the protection of the individual from possible criminal acts. People desire to become rich very quickly sometimes forces them to behave foolishly, which puts at risk the physical life of the owners of capital. Exposing information about balances of one's digital wallet in posts in the timeline on social networks means that one is asking other people to become interested in possible extortion and robbery. Keeping secret all the information regarding personal finances helps to avoid being in danger by malicious individuals. Refusing to say anything and draw attention to personal success is the rational choice if the surrounding world of people is unpredictable.

[tabas]

The question is how this brothers know that victim1 has crypto? the article didn't mention any connection about the suspects and the victims. Could it be that they've seen it on social media that the victim has shown some signs of holding a lot of crypto? Keep it cool, never ever tell people what you own and be low profile at all times. That's all how you'd keep yourself at least free from the risk of these attackers. You'll never know that the people who are praising you with your holdings might have already a dark plan against you. Be look broke.

[Asuspawer09]

Somehow, similar to wrench attacks, It is surely not safe for anyone what ever wallet you are using it is not safe because anyone can just force you to use it or send the funds to an address. So it doesn't matter if you have a hardware wallet or software or desktop wallet it is not safe from a forced attack if they threaten you. The best thing to do, like what other members said, was just to be careful and not tell anyone that you have some kind of investments or huge money.

Even on cash, I wouldn't say anything about it or even post it on socia media just to be safe, It wasn't like I need to show anyone that I have the money if I already have it, no need to show it off it is much better if you have stable income and good savings, you wil have a good peace of mind and that was enough already, showing it off is not really going to do anything long ter.

[Sonia_123]

That is why we don't need to expose our crypto activities to anyone, even relating it to our family members we need to be very careful since we don't know how secured other of your family members may be, children can also easily expose our activities outside because they don't understand the high level of insecurity it can cause to the family.

For physical attacks the victims are always the problem, since they must have showed off the worth of their asset to trying to prove how successful they have become, some persons does not understand how to protect themselves when they are into crypto mainly bitcoin.

[Orpichukwu]

It’s no longer cases of someone who owns crypto being a loudmouth, but now data leakage gives us more than anything. You can’t tell where the attack can come from; we just have to be careful and prepare for the worst because someone who owns a hardware wallet can be attacked by some hungry thugs who get their hand on their personal details that they own a hardware wallet.