ChainCatcher news, according to Decrypt, French multinational company Schneider Electric has suffered a ransomware attack, with the hacker group "Hellcat" demanding $125,000 worth of baguettes or the cryptocurrency Monero as ransom, or they will publicly release 40GB of sensitive data stolen from the company.It is reported that the group published the ransom note through anonymous social media accounts, claiming to have obtained key information about the company's customers and operations. This attack marks the third cyber attack on Schneider Electric in two years.The company has confirmed that it is investigating the incident, stating that the attacked platform is in a quarantined environment and that the company's products and services have not been affected. Analysts point out that the hackers' choice of baguettes as a demand is for "marketing" purposes, to increase their visibility in the ransomware market.

ChainCatcher news, according to the Nikkei, a joint task force composed of the Cyber Special Investigation Division of the National Police Agency and police forces from 9 prefectures including Saitama Prefecture arrested 26-year-old Yuta Kobayashi, whose address and occupation are unknown, on suspicion of committing fraud using a computer. Kobayashi is believed to be the leader of the group, with losses exceeding 100 million yen (approximately $667,100). The group allegedly abused the highly secretive Monero to attempt money laundering, and Kobayashi's identity was determined through tracking the flow of funds. The National Police Agency stated that this is the first time in Japan that Monero has been analyzed to identify a suspect.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptoslate, affected by Kraken's announcement that it will stop supporting Monero (XMR) in the European Economic Area (EEA) at the end of October, the price of Monero has dropped over 5% in the past 24 hours to $144.Kraken stated that this move is due to regional regulatory changes and will cease all XMR market trading and deposits on October 31. Users must withdraw their assets by December 31, 2024, and any unwithdrawn Monero will be automatically converted to Bitcoin and distributed to users on January 6, 2025.

ChainCatcher news, Riccardo "Fluffypony" Spagni, the former chief maintainer of the privacy blockchain Monero, has launched a new mining application called Tari Universe. This application aims to "democratize" cryptocurrency mining by using an ASIC-resistant hashing algorithm that allows users to mine with regular computers. After the recent release of this application, Spagni stated that his goal is to make mining easier for everyone, "We want to create an experience where technology gradually fades into the background. Tari Universe is about empowering users rather than suppressing them."Spagni is promoting the L1 protocol, despite facing fraud and forgery allegations from his former employer Cape Cookies. In June of this year, a report from Mybroadband stated that Spagni defrauded Cape Cookies of approximately $83,400 between October 1, 2009, and June 8, 2011. However, South African authorities did not take action until August 2021, when they requested U.S. authorities to arrest him.Since his arrest and subsequent extradition to South African authorities, Spagni has maintained his innocence and attempted to overturn the arrest warrant. However, the South African Supreme Court of Appeal denied this request.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the blockchain analysis company Chainalysis allegedly accidentally leaked a video about Monero (XMR) token tracking methods, which was subsequently deleted.

ChainCatcher news, the Chester Cyber Crime Unit in the UK successfully "seized" £15,000 worth of Monero from a convicted drug dealer.This marks the first time in the UK that Monero cryptocurrency has been converted into cash, demonstrating the crackdown on criminal activities involving privacy coins. The dealer was sentenced to 28 months in prison for selling deadly weight loss drugs on the dark web and has now been forced to hand over £23,000 in assets, or face an additional 8 months in prison.

ChainCatcher news, cryptocurrency mining pool 2Miners announced on platform X that it will take down the Monero (XMR) mining pool on June 10, and users can continue to use their CPUs for Zephyr (ZEPH) mining.

ChainCatcher news, the Monero P2P trading platform LocalMonero announced that it will cease operations. All new registrations and ad postings are disabled, new trades will be disabled starting from May 14, 2024, and the website will be shut down on November 7, 2024.LocalMonero stated: "After nearly 7 years of operation, we have made the difficult decision to close the platform due to a combination of internal and external factors."

ChainCatcher news, according to The Block, Kraken will delist the privacy coin Monero (XMR) in Ireland and Belgium on June 10 this year. All XMR trading and deposits will be halted starting May 10, and all margin positions should be closed before this date to avoid forced liquidation.It is reported that XMR withdrawals will stop on June 10, at which point any remaining XMR balance will be automatically converted to Bitcoin.

ChainCatcher news, blockchain analysis company Moonstone Research released an analysis of the Monero (XMR) CCS hack. The document points out that the attacker stole the balance of the Android non-custodial Monero CCS wallet through 9 transactions on September 1, 2023, which included 2,675.73 XMR.

ChainCatcher news, according to The Straits Times, gaming hardware giant Razer has experienced a data breach. Last Saturday, a seller on a hacker forum sought to sell the stolen Razer data for $100,000 in cryptocurrency.The Straits Times investigation found that the data for sale includes the source code of the Razer website and its products, as well as backend access login information. This includes a folder named zVault (a digital wallet launched by Razer in March 2017, which was later replaced by Razer Gold in December 2018) and a folder that allegedly contains encryption keys and files related to its rewards system. On the hacker forum, the seller stated that they were willing to sell the aforementioned data for $100,000 in Monero and would accept offers below the specified amount.Razer stated that it is aware of a potential data breach and is conducting an investigation. (Source link)

According to Chain Catcher news and reported by The Guardian, Australia's second-largest telecommunications company, Optus, has experienced a massive user data breach. One attacker claims to possess relevant information, including detailed data of 11.2 million Optus customers, such as user names, birth dates, phone numbers, email addresses, home addresses, as well as passport and driver's license numbers. They also released samples of two customers' information and demanded 1 million dollars in Monero. (The Guardian)