Feed: Slashdot
Feed Link: https://slashdot.org/
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Title: How To Not Get Kidnapped For Your Bitcoin

Link: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/25/11/18/01520...

schwit1 shares a report from the New York Times: Pete Kayll, a musclebound
veteran of Britain's Royal Marines, had an unusual instruction for the
Bitcoin investors gathered in Switzerland in late October. "Just bite your
way out," he told them. It was the final day of a weekend-long cryptocurrency
convention on the shore of Lake Lugano, near the Italian border. A small
group of investors had lined up in a conference room to have their hands
bound with plastic zipties. Now they were learning how to get them off. "Your
teeth will get through anything," Mr. Kayll advised. "But it will bloody well
hurt." Most people don't go to an international crypto conference expecting
to learn how to gnaw through plastic. But after hours of panels devoted to
topics like Bitcoin-collateralized loans, these investors were looking for
something more practical. They wanted to know what to do if they were grabbed
on the street and thrown into the back of a van. Already paranoid about
scams, hacks and market turmoil, wealthy crypto investors have lately become
terrified about a much graver threat: torture and kidnapping. These threats
are known as "wrench attacks," which is a reference to a popular XKCD cartoon
where a thief skips the hacking and just uses a wrench to force out the
password. According to the NYT, the best way to stay protected is staying low-
profile, minimizing visible signs of wealth, using basic physical security
tools, and preparing for self-defense. The report specifically recommends
avoiding flashy displays of wealth like luxury watches and cars, watching for
honey-traps, using hotel door stoppers, practicing escape techniques such as
breaking zip-ties, hiring discreet bodyguards, and relying on panic-button
apps like Glok to summon help quickly.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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