Wipro gets anonymous email threat, Rs 500 crore in Bitcoin demanded as ransom

On Friday, the Bengaluru-based IT company Wipro received an anonymous email threat demanding a ransom of Rs 500 crore, according to several media reports. [caption id=“attachment_3427738” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Representational photo. Reuters[/caption] According to a report in  The New Indian Express, the blackmailer demanded that the payment be made by 25 May through an online link in Bitcoins, a digital currency. The criminal also warned that failure to meet this demand would result in a toxic drug being spread on the Wipro campus. According to the complaint filed with the cyber crime police, the threatening email was received by the Wipro office in Sarjapura. Police sources said the email sent by the ID Ramesh2@protonmail.com claimed that one kilo of Ricin, a toxic protein extracted from castor bean, had been stored by the blackmailer and added that and two grams would be sent to Wipro’s offices in envelopes to confirm that he was not bluffing, the report added. According to a report in Bangalore Mirror, the email threatened: “It [Ricin] would be used through food served at your cafeteria, disperse it using a flying drone or even on the toilet seat or the toilet paper with which you wipe your a**e..you get the point (sic)." The email also reportedly links to a report about the death of 22 stray dogs in Kolkata. The sender claimed that he had isolated a high-quality strain of the toxin and had tested it on the dogs. An FIR under Section 66 F of the IT Act has been registered at the cyber crime police station, Bangalore Mirror reported.