Swedish Man Sends Bomb to Cryptocurrency Firm ‘Over Password Reset’

BBC reports that a Swedish man has been jailed for sending a “potentially lethal homemade bomb” to a crypto firm in London. The London Metropolitan Police said that man had become enraged after the firm, Cryptopay, refused to reset his password for him.

43-year-old Swedish national Jermu Michael Salonen first contacted Cryptopay in August of last year, requesting a password reset. However, this request was refused by Cryptopay, as the company stated that password resets went against the company’s privacy policy.

“[We could] only identify one possible reason,” for the incident the Met Police told the BBC.

Salonen allegedly sent a padded envelope containing an unmarked white powder to two Cryptopay employees. It was delivered to an office in Hackney, which was formerly the workplace for an accountancy firm that used Cryptopay.

The envelope laid un-opened for a number of months, until March 8th, 2018. A worker going through the mail said he began to open the package until the contents inside made him suspicious.

“We are relieved that no one from The Accountancy Cloud team was hurt in this incident,” a spokesman for Cryptopay told the BBC. “None of our employees have ever worked at that address.”

Salonen now faces numerous charges of this nature, as he is reported to have sent similar packages to several Swedish lawmakers, including the Prime Minister.

“The vast majority of our employees work remotely across Europe, but we are implementing additional security measures to prevent any potential harm to our employees anyway,” said the spokesman. “We are thankful for both British and Swedish police, who were able to investigate the case with outstanding professionalism.”

A search of Salonen’s home found “numerous bomb components,” authorities report.

“It was due to sheer luck that the recipient ripped opened the package in the middle rather than using the envelope flap which would have activated the device,” said Commander Clarke Jarrett at the Met Police Counter Terrorism Command.

Initial DNA analysis by Met Police found no information on the culprit in the UK’s crime databases. However, later analysis conducted by Interpol linked back to Salonen.

“Through these inquiries, it was identified that the DNA matched those of Salonen, who was known to Swedish authorities,” said the Met Police.