[anondon]

Look at the btc address history: https://bitref.com/13zaxGVjj9MNc2jyvDRhLyYpkCh323MsMq

Looks like the guy pulled off these blackmailing/hostage tricks before as well.

Not to pile on to the already tense situation, would you be open to sharing how this happened, what the database contained etc, sort of like a post mortem without revealing any personally identifiable info.

[xyunknown]

I am not affected by this hostage taking. On the contrary, I am one of the authors of the aforementioned info paper from early '15 warning about this kind of stuff. If you want more information about the incident back then, look me up my name is Kai Greshake. The paper linked above also contains all you need to know about why this incident today happened. As a response MongoDB also updated their security guidelines back then, but refused to change the open-default mechanism and easy-to-do-wrong configuration, arguing that it was aconcious design choice.Turns out this was a bad decision, at least in my eyes, as this is not the first related incident, there were many breaches etc. based around open-default databases in the past 2 years, exposing millions of account info, voting data, and industry equipment.

[dx034]

Shouldn't it be possible to trace the transactions to the point where they were used to pay goods or exchange them for real money?

[xyunknown]

No, thats why things like BTC Tumblers/ Laundering exist.

[dx034]

Ok, I didn't know you can use them. But probably still worth a try, certainly not used by everyone.