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Hackers Target Crypto Investors With Malware
Beginning in 2022, two malicious files — MortalKombat ransomware and Laplas Clipper malware — have been scouring the internet and stealing cryptocurrencies from investors, according to the threat intel from Cisco Talos. The victims of the attacks are mostly in the United States, with a smaller number in the UK, the Philippines, and Turkey.
The two malicious files work in tandem to steal wallet information pasted on the user’s clipboard. It then replaces the stolen wallet information with a different address. The attack is random, targeting individual investors, large and small.
Once the malware infects the user, the MortalKombat ransomware encrypts the user’s files and sends a ransom demand for payment.
The “tag-team campaign” starts with a crypto-themed email with a malicious attachment. The attachment runs a BAT file that downloads and executes the ransomware if opened, according to Malwarebytes. A typical emails reads, in part:
YOUR SYSTEM IS LOCKED AND ALL YOUR IMPORTANT DATA HAS BEEN ENCRYPTED. DON’T WORRY YOUR FILES ARE SAFE. TO RETURN ALL THEM NORMALLY YOU MUST BUY THE CERBER DECRYPTOR PROGRAM. PAYMENTS ARE ACCEPTED ONLY THROUGH THE BITCOIN NETWORK.
Bankman-Fried’s Balil Backers Identified
Two academics from Stanford Law School and Stanford University are the previously unknown signers of surety bonds that helped bail Sam Bankman-Fried out of prison, court filings reveal.
The two are identified as Larry Kramer, who was dean of the law school, and Andreas Paepcke, a computer science research engineer at the university.
The two signed separate surety bonds included in a $250 million personal recognizance bond signed by Bankman-Fried’s parents. Kramer’s bond was for $500,000 and Paepcke’s part was $200,000.
The disclosures came after Judge Lewis Caplan granted motions filed by several news organizations, ruling that it was public information.
Shortly after his extraction from the Bahamas, Federal prosecutors for the Southern District of New York claimed Bankman-Fried was being freed on $250 million bail. In reality, the amount recoverable if Bankman-Fried fled would be a small fraction of that amount.
Democrats Return Just 2% of Bankman-Fried’s $45M Donations
In related news, Democrats, who received $45 million in 2020 campaign donations from Bankman-Fried, have returned just 2.2% of that amount to his bankrupt crypto exchange.
$5.2 million went to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign. At a White House press briefing on Dec. 13, 2022, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked if the president would return the funds. Jean-Pierre refused to comment.
“Anything that’s connected to political contributions, from here I would have to refer you to the DNC,” Jean-Pierre said, citing the Hatch Act.
Bankman-Fried was the second-largest donor to Democrats during the midterm elections, exceeded only by George Soros, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) records.
The bankrupt estate is asking that the $45.2 million given to Democratic candidates, political action committees, and Biden be returned to the company so it can repay its creditors.
Dollar Collapse Looms as BRICS Nations Unite
In a Feb. 16 interview with Michelle Makori of Kitco News, Miles Franklin executive Andy Schectman predicted that a major portion of the world’s economies would abandon the U.S. dollar and cause a “tsunami of inflation.”
Schectman expects an economic collapse and believes the World Economic Forum’s Great Reset will be triggered, with central banks issuing digital currencies — allowing total monetary control.
Noting that the U.S. dollar has been weaponized, he expects China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and other nations to topple it as the world’s reserve currency.
“All it would take, would be for Saudi Arabia to stand up on the stage [and declare] we’re now going to consider taking up other currencies for oil,” said Schectman. “And all of a sudden, bang, all of the countries that had to hold dollars for the last fifty years, no longer have an interest in holding them. And if they all start to dump dollars, and I think it would happen quickly, you would have a tsunami of inflation hitting the shores of the West.”
See the full interview here:
