Over $5 Billion In BTC Paid In Top 10 Ransomware Variants, Says U.S. Treasury
Ransomware attacks in the U.S. have been on a rise since late 2020, but it is particularly booming in 2021. This year, hackers have hit numerous U.S. companies in large-scale hacks. One such attack on pipeline operator Colonial Pipeline led to temporary fuel supply shortages on the U.S. East Coast. Hackers also targeted an Iowa-based agricultural company, sparking fears of disruptions to grain harvesting in the Midwest. Schools, insurance companies, and police departments have also suffered from these attacks. Related Reading | Questions Linger As FBI Recovers Colonial Pipeline....
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FinCEN, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, linked more than $5 billion in bitcoin transactions to the most common ransomware variants out there. The organization stated in a report issued last week that the mean average total monthly suspicious amount of ransomware transactions was $66.4 million during the first two quarters of 2021. FinCEN also determined that the most used cryptocurrency associated with these activities was bitcoin.
FinCEN Dives Into Ransomware Attacks
FinCEN, the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, found that more than $5 billion in bitcoin....
A blockchain research firm, Chainalysis, revealed crypto-ransomware attacks of 2021 racked up $602 million in Bitcoin and other currencies, and that figure could be even higher. In addition, the report pronounced a Russian-based hacker group named Conti as the most active and largest group of hackers by revenue last year. The analysis firm expressed that they have counted for all of it yet, and the figure of stolen money may be even more extensive, rising as high as $1 billion. Related Reading | Over $5 Billion In BTC Paid In Top 10 Ransomware Variants, Says U.S. Treasury In a....
The U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued a warning that alerts financial institutions in the United States about increasing ransomware attacks against coronavirus vaccine research organizations. US Treasury Warns of Ransomware Attacks, Phishing Schemes Targeting Covid-19 Vaccine Research Institutions According to the alert, FinCEN says that fraud, ransomware attacks, and “similar types of criminal activity” target the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, which could affect their supply chains if proper actions are not taken on....
Why is ransomware the new rage? Denis Sinegubko, the founder of Unmask Parasites and senior malware researcher at Sucuri, a network security firm, notes in a Sucuri blog that the answer to this question has to do with the way ransomware demands are paid. Unlike false anti-viruses that were mostly harmless and made people pay to remove non-existing threats, ransomware is a more serious challenge since it disables the computer unless a ransom is paid. Ransomware schemes were not available five to eight years ago. Ransomware could not accept PayPal or credit cards since those transactions are....
In a ransomware attack, it is assumed that the hackers prefer the ransom being paid in bitcoin due to the anonymous nature of its transactions. It might not be true as the hackers are probably interested in bitcoin for entirely different reasons. Bitcoin and Ransomware, these words appear more frequently in a single sentence these days than we wish for. Ransomware attacks have become a common occurrence these days. We had earlier reported the use of Advertising network by cyber criminals to propagate ransomware to the computers belonging to the readers of some of the leading news websites.....