[Cryptography] Updates on Durov charges in France

[Phillip Hallam-Baker]

On Mon, Sep 2, 2024 at 3:49 PM Peter Gutmann <pgut001 at cs.auckland.ac.nz>
wrote:

> efc--- via cryptography <cryptography at metzdowd.com> writes:
>
> >This is a weakness that I think is underaprpeciated. I mean the fact that
> >many projects have a small core of programmers, who are know. In order to
> "
> >break" the system, you can approach and kidnap members of the family of
> the
> >programmers, or one programmer, and have him add bugs to the project.
>
> That's an incredibly high-profile, visible attack, and kidnapping as a
> crime
> is about... many orders of magnitude more pursuable and punishable by law
> enforcement than changing a line or two of code in someone's project.
>
> I would put this one in the movie-plot-attack category.
>

Eugene Kaspersky's son was kidnapped.

It is unclear who was responsible for the kidnapping but entirely rational
to consider the murderous FSB to have made demands of Kaspersky before his
release.

Hal Finney was SWATted multiple times by BitCoin criminals trying to extort
the genesis block key from him.

The Chinese security forces routinely approach former Chinese nationals
living in the US and tell them that a family member has a medical condition
that requires urgent medical care which they will receive only if the
national engages in espionage.

These are all well documented and quite routine security risks, I am unsure
why you would think them unlikely.
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