Purported ransom note for Savannah Guthrie's mom demanded payment in bitcoin. Could it be tracked?
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The disappearance of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy Guthrie, includes a tantalizing clue: an apparent ransom note that demanded payment in bitcoin. Edited by Alain Sherter In:
The disappearance of "Today" show co-host Savannah Guthrie's mother, Nancy Guthrie, includes a tantalizing clue: an apparent ransom note that demanded payment in bitcoin.
The note, which is being taken seriously by investigators, included a deadline of 5 p.m. Thursday, although it didn't specify a time zone. If the payment wasn't made, the note specified another deadline of Monday, investigators said Thursday.
The demand for bitcoin raises questions about whether the cryptocurrency could be used to hide a kidnapper's identity, given the financial product's semi-anonymous nature. Experts tell CBS News that law enforcement officials can track down information about the people or organizations behind crypto transactions, increasing the chances that the ransom demand could produce possible leads in the Guthrie case.
All bitcoin transactions are recorded and monitored on the public blockchain, which is similar to a bank ledger. To conduct a transaction, a user must also have a bitcoin wallet with an alphanumeric address, which stores private keys for authorizing transfers and public keys for receiving funds.
Those pieces of information — a blockchain transaction and a bitcoin wallet — can offer a starting point for law enforcement to track down a bad actor, said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs, which helps track crypto fraud and crimes, and a former Department of Justice and Treasury official who investigated financial crimes.
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