Researching and reporting on data breaches has always had some element of risk attached. You can get accused of hacking, or you can get threatened with litigation. In Brian Krebs’s case, you can find yourself swatted. Or in my case, you can get threatened with infection of HIV. But with the exception of swatting, the rest pales in comparison to a researcher getting kidnapped.
Catalin Cimpanu of Softpedia reports that may have happened to a researcher involved in investigating the high-profile breach of Bangladesh’s central bank at the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York that netted the thieves over $80 million (it would have been worse but for a typo the criminals made).
In the investigation that followed, security researchers blamed malware and a faulty printer but at the same time said that the Bangladesh central bank officials were also to blame because of weak security procedures. The bank’s governor and two deputy governors had to quit their jobs after the scandal.
In a weird turn of events, one of the security researchers who voiced their criticism at the central bank’s security measures disappeared on Wednesday night.
Family members are saying that Zoha met with a friend at 11:30 PM on Wednesday night, March 16. While coming home, a jeep pulled in front of their auto-rickshaw, and men separated the two, putting them in two different cars.
Read more on Softpedia.
Update: Zoha’s been found, but what happened is not yet clear as he was in a disoriented state and could not be questioned.