Telecom Argentina Under Attack-Hackers Demand $7.5M In Monero

Major telecom provider Telecom Argentina S.A is under attack following a Monero hack where the hackers demand $7.5 million in XMR as we are reading further in our latest Monero news.

Anonymous sources claim that the cyberattack was going on since Wednesday when the staff attributed poor IT performance with many glitches within the system. The investigations made by the company resulted in many other departments from saying they were not able to open files, access emails, and disconnect the terminals from their system.

Another review of the situation pinpoints the start of the attack when an email attachment was sent under the name “77os97-readme.” This came after the recent Twitter hack where the hackers seized high profile accounts and scammed Bitcoin off unsuspecting individuals. The spotlight is once again back on the cryptocurrency and its relationship with criminals. But more than that, the role of privacy coins in facilitating crime.

The popular economist Alex Kruger tweeted a screenshot of the demands in exchange for ending the cyberattack. It clearly shows a request for 109K monero which is equivalent to $7.5 million that has to be paid by 21^st this month. The failure to pay will incur a doubling of the charge. The incident with Telecom Argentina drew a mixed reaction from the crypto community and some saw it as a testament to Monero’s benefits because XMR is a privacy coin that can protect the identity of the attackers.

Others saw this as a bearish sign for cryptocurrencies because it gives the opportunity to restrict the industry even more. Before the hack, privacy coins were already under fire for being used by criminals but the latest incident only provides authorities with the needed excuse to impose harsher regulation. The fact that the hackers demanded Monero only highlights the fact that there’s too little privacy in today’s world. Daniel Jeffries described the shift towards a surveillance society which will lead to a future where cash is dead and privacy coins are the way to freedom:

 “Your phone knows where you’re going and who your friends are and what you want to buy before you do. Centralized digital money will know even more. None of us want our private lives aired to the world. Just as we don’t want the neighbors looking in our windows when we walk around naked and we don’t want someone eavesdropping as we whisper sweet nothings to our lover, we don’t want some cold bureaucrat or corporation anonymously monitoring every second of every day of our lives.”