Europol Report Connects Anonymous Digital Currencies to Dark Net Crime
Europol has issued a new report on Internet crime in which it outlined a number of scenarios involving bitcoin. Called the Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment (iOCTA), the report examines the use of bitcoin on various dark web sites, by organised crime and individual actors, and calls digital currencies an 'enabler' for cryber-criminals and a challenge for law enforcement. However, it makes a clear distinction between bitcoin and digital currencies designed with true anonymity in mind, like darkcoin, warning: "We feel it should concern everyone that the latest cyber currencies are....
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In its latest report called the Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment for 2015, Europol outlined the state of cybercrime threats in the European Union. The report mentions bitcoin and virtual currencies, claiming that it accounts for roughly 40% of criminal-to-criminal transactions online. This follows the agency's statement indicating that cryptocurrencies promote the crime-as-a-service business model, wherein bitcoin was highlighted for its role in facilitating money laundering. The cryptocurrency is known for its anonymous transactions, which Europol says makes it "heavily abused....
Digital currencies such as Bitcoin are enabling individual criminals, who come together on an ad-hoc basis, to boost the "crime-as-a-service" business model. The newly-released Europol report titled, 'Exploring Tomorrow's Organised Crime', states: "Virtual currencies increasingly enable individuals to act as freelance criminal entrepreneurs operating on a crime-as-a-service business model without the need for a sophisticated criminal infrastructure to receive and launder money." The research, aimed at identifying the key trends in the EU criminal landscape, revealed that such developments....
Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency that deals with criminal intelligence is calling for police to be given additional powers when it comes to identifying wrong-doers, particular those who are laundering money using bitcoin and other digital currencies. "We're seeing that virtual currencies are being used as an instrument to facilitate crime, particularly in regard to the laundering of illicit profits," said Rob Wainwright, director at Europol, at a nuclear security conference in The Hague, Netherlands. Europol doesn't have their own policing powers, but they say that....
Europol has said in a new report that it believes bitcoin could become the go-to currency for digital criminals in the region. The European Union's top law enforcement agency released its Internet Organised Crime Threat Assessment for 2015 on 30th September, outlining its view of the top cybercrime threats facing the European Union. The report focuses on the topic of bitcoin and digital currencies in a number of contexts, including the state of criminal financing and specific elements of illicit activity involving the technology. Europol said that, according to its data, bitcoin accounts....
Digital currencies are increasingly serving as a money laundering platform for "freelance criminal entrepreneurs operating on a crime-as-a-service business model", according to a new Europol report. The EU's law enforcement agency said that the decline of traditional hierarchical criminal networks will be accompanied by the emergence of individual criminal entrepreneurs, who come together on a project basis. The report, which identified the key driving factors affecting the EU's criminal landscape, predicted that the role of freelance crime organisers is expected to "become more....