The trial of a digital money extortion case in Hangzhou involves 4 people with an amount exceeding 330,000 yuan.

CoinVoice has recently learned from the Guangzhou Daily that the Hangzhou Shangcheng District People’s Court has made a first-instance judgment on a case involving ransomware implemented through Trojan viruses. Four defendants were sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment ranging from 3 years to 7 years and 6 months for the crimes of extortion and infringement of citizens’ personal information.

The main perpetrators of the gang, including Qi, were originally network security engineers who were familiar with system vulnerabilities and had previously engaged in illegally scraping citizens’ personal information for profit. By the end of 2023, they shifted to ransomware attacks, using Trojan viruses to encrypt corporate files and demanding ransom in digital cryptocurrency. Police investigations revealed that the gang also attacked two other companies, extorting over 330,000 yuan in cryptocurrency. The gang had strong anti-detection awareness, using overseas proxy servers to hide their tracks, and optimized virus code using AI. In December 2023, police arrested four individuals in Inner Mongolia, Beijing, and other locations. The court found that their actions severely undermined network security and ultimately made a ruling in accordance with the law.