
US officials seize $6.1M in crypto from ransomware actors, adds Chatex to san...
“This will not be the last time — the U.S. government will continue to aggressively pursue the entire ransomware ecosystem and increase our nation's resilience to cyber threats," said Attorney General Merrick Garland. The United States Department of the Treasury has announced it will impose sanctions on the cryptocurrency exchange Chatex and its support network for allegedly facilitating transactions for ransomware actors.In an advisory update issued on Nov. 8, the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, added Chatex as well as IZIBITS OU, Chatextech SIA, and....
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The State Duma of Russia, the lower house of parliament, has passed a law permitting law enforcement authorities to seek confiscation of illegally obtained funds from government officials, including cryptocurrency. The state may attempt to seize the assets through court if they exceed the officials’ income.
New Law Allows Russia to Prosecute Officials With Illegal Crypto Holdings
Government officials who possess financial assets — including digital coins — exceeding their declared income from the last three years risk losing them to the state, according to a....
Government officials did not specify the exact method used to seize the funds from the ransomware group. Officials with a United States government task force have seized more than $2 million in crypto used to pay for ransom following an attack on the Colonial Pipeline system. In a Monday press conference, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that the task force “found and recaptured” millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin (BTC) connected to Russia-based DarkSide hackers — the majority of the $4.4 million funds originally paid. A warrant filed with the U.S. District Court for the Northern....
Ransomware is now becoming standardized to create a lucrative business model, ransomware as a service for amateur hackers. Ransomware as a Service. Developers of the crypto-ransomware tool, Cerber, have set up a RaaS (Ransomware as a Service) platform for amateur threat actors that could end up bringing in some big money by distributing their tool to a network of affiliates. The business technique could end up netting nearly $2 million. Security vendor Check Point Software Technologies has gathered data on the ransomware tool and determined that in July alone Cerber-affiliates have....
A surge in ransomware in 2021 has also resulted in a surge in Monero usage as the method of payment as more criminal groups want only XMR. A new report by blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace highlights the growing role that privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero are playing in the rising tide of ransomware.“Current Trends in Ransomware” delves into trends observed during 2021 but was only released this week. The firm revealed there was almost a 500% increase in “double extortion” ransomware attacks from 2020 to 2021. These are cyber attacks in which malicious actors steal a....
Law enforcement agencies and government officials are trying to come up with a strategy to fight Bitcoin ransomware on a global scale. One proposal would see countries not doing anything to stop ransomware groups should be treated the same as those who aid in terrorism. Playing the Terrorism Card to Fight Ransomware. The topic of Bitcoin ransomware has....