‘Wrench attacks’ against Crypto holders are increasing. What to know – National

The main increase of an Italian man who said he was being abducted and tortured for weeks in a luxury mansion in Manhattan by kidnappers looking for his bitcoin, emphasizes a dark corner of the Cryptocurrency World: the threat of violence by thieves who are looking for digital assets.

The alleged attempt at theft is known as a “key attack”. It is a name that is made popular by an online strip that mocked how easily high -tech protection can be undone by touching someone with a key until they give up passwords.

Wrench attacks are increasing, thanks in part to the switch from cryptocurrency to regular financing, said Phil Ariss of the Crypto tracing company TRM Labs in a recent blog post.

“Criminal groups that are already familiar with the use of violence to achieve their goals would probably always migrate to crypto,” said Ariss.

Some of the most important characteristics of crypto help explain why rich individuals who have many digital assets can be ripe goals for such attacks.

Cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin offer traders full control over their funds without a bank or permission from a government to buy, sell or hold it. The consideration is that if funds are lost or stolen, there can be no way to get them back.

Self -reliance is an important ethos of crypto. Securing and checking someone’s private keys, which are as passwords used to gain access to someone’s crypto companies, is seen as a sacred among many in the crypto community. A popular motto is “not your keys, not your coins.”

Transactions on the blockchain, the technology that cryptocurrencies drives, are permanent. And unlike cash, jewelry, gold or other value items, thieves do not have to contribute stolen crypto. With a few clicks, huge amounts of wealth can be transferred from one address to another.

In the case in New York, where two people have been charged, there are still many details to come out, including the value of the Bitcoin that the victim had.

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Stealing cryptocurrency is almost as old as cryptocurrency itself, but it is usually done by hacking. North Korean state hackers alone would have stolen billions of dollars in crypto in recent years.

In response to the threat of hacking, holders of a large amount of crypto often try to keep their private keys on the internet and stored in what is called ‘cold portfolios’. Used correctly, such portfolios can defeat even the most advanced and determined hackers.

But they cannot beat thieves who force a victim to give up their password to gain access to their wallets and move money.

The business in New York is the newest in a series of high -profile key attacks. Several have taken place in France, where thieves cut the finger of a crypto director.

Experts suggest different ways to reduce the threats of key attacks, including the use of portfolios that require multiple approvals before transactions.

Perhaps the most common way in which crypto-rich individuals try to prevent key attacks by trying to remain anonymous. The use of nicknames and cartoon -Avatars in social media accounts is common in the crypto community, even at top managers at popular companies.

& copy 2025 The Canadian Press