Moonday Morning: US college hit by ransomers demanding $2M in Bitcoin

Welcome back to another Moonday Morning, Hard Fork’s wrap-up of the weekend’s top cryptocurrency and blockchain headlines that you can’t afford to miss.

Let’s check it out.

1. Leaders in US congress have drafted a bill that would prevent big tech companies from offering financial products and services like cryptocurrencies and digital assets, The Block reports. The bill comes ahead of Facebook’s congressional hearing later this week. But I think we should kill Libra! Kill it any way we can!

2.  Something’s up at Bitpoint, the Japanese exchange hacked for $32 million worth of cryptocurrency last week. Some reports out today/last night are stating that the exchange has located $2.3 million (250 million Yen) of the stolen cryptocurrency. However, translated reports appear to suggest the additional $2.3 million is the result of another hack. We’ll update when more is confirmed.

3. A college in New York City is the latest to fall victim to a Bitcoin-fueled ransomware attack. Monroe College was hacked last Wednesday morning, and has resulted in the college’s systems being shutdown. The hacker(s) are demanding 170 Bitcoin ($2 million) to decrypt the school’s network, Daily News reports.

4. Chinese police have seized 4,000 Bitcoin mining machines suspected of running on stolen electricity, Xinhua Net reports. The authorities were alerted earlier this year after a local power company reported “abnormal electricity usage.” After a two-month-long investigation, a gang of 22 people that had been running nine mining farms, were arrested.

And finally…

5. An American football team – the Miami Dolphins no less – has picked Litecoin as its “Official Cryptocurrency,” whatever that means. It appears to be a sponsorship deal, with a few extras thrown in, according to an announcement from the Litecoin Foundation. One such extra will let Dolphins fans buy tickets to the team’s charity raffle using Litecoin or Bitcoin.

So long and thanks for all the Bitcoin hard forkers.