$5 wrench attacks appear to be on the rise in the crypto community By Cointelegraph

Normally, the only way to access one’s crypto funds is through their private key, which, thanks to advances in cryptography, would take nothing less than an advanced futuristic quantum computer to decipher. That said, mafias and gangs have managed to think outside the box. Instead of wasting their efforts on breaking the underlying cryptography, they’ve turned their attention to targeting crypto owners, themselves.

A $5 wrench attack is when someone finds out you have a lot of crypto and physically attacks or threatens you for your private keys. On Wednesday, at least eight men, including a police officer, were arrested in the city of Pimpri-Chinchwad, India, for allegedly kidnapping a crypto trader and demanding ransom. The arrested officer, Constable Dilip Tukaram Khandare, reportedly learned of the trader’s 300 crore rupee ($40.13 million) crypto wealth via access to confidential data while working in the cybercrime department. The trader was let go after his friend filed a missing person report that prompted Khandare, who feared repercussions, to release him.