People familiar with the Bitcoin scene may have heard of the ‘Bitcoin Baron” in the past. This man, known as Randall Charles Tucker, was behind a series of hacking government-operated websites in the states of Wisconsin and Arizona. Under the moniker of Bitcoin Baron, he claimed responsibility for these distributed denial-of-service attacks.
The Bitcoin Baron Likes DDoS Attacks
As it turns out, the Bitcoin Baron is responsible for several DDoS attacks against the city of Madison’s computer servers. Two of these DDoS attacks were executed on March 9 and 14 of 2015. In doing so, Tucker crashed the city’s website, but he also took down “critical emergency response systems”.
While causing the city’s website to go offline is a serious concern, the fact he affected emergency response systems is a bigger concern. During these attacks, no units could be dispatched automatically in case of an emergency. In effect, the Bitcoin Baron crippled the entire city’s emergency response infrastructure. For now, it remains unknown if this was his intention all along, or just collateral damage.
What we do know is how his incentive was purely political. The city of Madison saw a police officer shoot the unarmed Tony Robinson three days before the first DDoS attack. As a result of all of the protests breaking out in the area, these DDoS attacks were a way to put the city officials on high alert.
But Tucker was not satisfied with his handiwork related to Madison. Three days later, he shut down the Chandler – a city in Arizona – website for a total of 90 minutes. A third DDoS attack was executed against the city of Mesa’s website on March 19th. When that attack happened, users could not pay their utility bills online, which caused a lot of friction.
More Bad Press For Bitcoin
Although none of these issues has anything to do with Bitcoin directly, the popular cryptocurrency is caught up in yet more negative PR. The fact that Tucker called himself the “Bitcoin Baron” is not helping matters by any means. Moreover, Tucker has been charged with three counts of intentional damage to protect computers, and one count of threatening to damage other protected computers. A date for his official sentencing has not been set yet.
Source: AZ Family
Header image courtesy of Shutterstock