{"id":340070,"date":"2017-12-18T19:44:48","date_gmt":"2017-12-18T18:44:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/businesses-stashing-bitcoin-to-pay-ransom-in-case-of-hack-attacks-rt-uk-news\/"},"modified":"2017-12-18T19:44:48","modified_gmt":"2017-12-18T18:44:48","slug":"businesses-stashing-bitcoin-to-pay-ransom-in-case-of-hack-attacks-rt-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/businesses-stashing-bitcoin-to-pay-ransom-in-case-of-hack-attacks-rt-uk-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Businesses stashing bitcoin to pay ransom in case of hack attacks \u2014 RT UK News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdni.rt.com\/files\/2017.12\/thumbnail\/5a37fa54fc7e93fd2b8b456a.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><time class=\"date date_article-header\">Published time: 18 Dec, 2017 17:28 <\/time><\/p>\n<p>        Experts have revealed firms are stockpiling bitcoin to pay off potential ransoms. The digital currency, currently priced at \u00a313,997( $18,850), is the preference among hackers who threaten to wipe computers if ransoms aren\u2019t paid. <\/p>\n<div class=\"article__text text  js-mediator-article\">\n<p>Bitcoin, which was first developed for the trade of goods and services on the dark web, has seen a price jump of 1,800 percent as the popularity of cryptocurrency surges.<\/p>\n<p>In May, about a third of National Health Service (NHS) trusts were hit by a ransomware attack. The rogue code, named WannaCry, threatened to erase data from thousands of computers unless a bitcoin ransom of about \u00a3230 ($308) per computer was paid.<\/p>\n<p>According to Paul Taylor, UK head of cybersecurity at accounting and professional services firm KPMG, companies are definitely investing in bitcoin for a rainy day. <em>\u201cCompanies are definitely stockpiling bitcoin in order to be prepared to pay ransoms,\u201d<\/em> Taylor told the Times.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"900\" height=\"506\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IJWGuGRbxec\" frameborder=\"0\" gesture=\"media\" allow=\"encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen=\"\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Computer security company McAfee has also confirmed that stockpiling the digital currency is a practice businesses are engaging in.<em> \u201cIt\u2019s not something that organizations have publicly confirmed, because it says, \u2018We are willing to pay criminals in the event we are hit by ransomware,\u2019\u201d<\/em> McAfee chief scientist Raj Samani told the Sunday Telegraph. <em>\u201cHowever, it is certainly a practice we are aware [of].\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Although some people still aren\u2019t entirely sure what bitcoin is or how it works, the cryptocurrency is gradually becoming a mainstream way to invest money. Exchange giant CME is gearing up to capitalize on the booming digital currency, preparing to launch bitcoin futures this week. Cboe Global Markets debuted a similar contract last week.<\/p>\n<p>US futures trading watchdog Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) approved the plans of CME Group and Cboe at the start of December. CFTC chairman Christopher Giancarlo said bitcoin is <em>\u201ca commodity unlike any the commission has dealt with in the past.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>German stock exchange operator Deutsche B\u00f6rse is also rumored to be considering a bitcoin futures exchange.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Via <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rt.com\/uk\/413553-bitcoin-ransom-hacker-money\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=RSS\">RT<\/a>. This piece was reprinted by <a href=\"http:\/\/rinf.com\">RINF Alternative News<\/a> with permission or license.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Published time: 18 Dec, 2017 17:28 Experts have revealed firms are stockpiling bitcoin to pay off potential ransoms. The digital currency, currently priced at \u00a313,997( $18,850), is the preference among hackers who threaten to wipe computers if ransoms aren\u2019t paid. Bitcoin, which was first developed for the trade of goods and services on the dark [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":340071,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-340070","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}