Held for ransom by the digital ‘mob’

Everybody has heard of business owners forced to pay “rent” to mobsters to ensure that their building doesn’t “accidentally” burn to the ground or suffer some other deliberate misfortune.

But it could soon be average consumers who have to shell out $20 or more in Bitcoin every month to various digital “mobsters”, just to make sure their car will start in the morning or the brakes won’t fail on the highway, or so their home will stay locked during the day when they’re at work.

That was the dystopian future envisioned by a group of experts earlier last month at a panel discussion titled, “High Tech Crimes of Tomorrow” – part of a Georgetown Law School conference titled, “Cybercrime 2020: The Future of Online Crime and Investigations.”

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