“It’s like a whac-a-mole between law enforcement agencies, the tools they use, and criminals.”
However, these types of coins are still far from the popularity level of Bitcoin. FinCEN announced in October that attackers provided both Monero and Bitcoin wallet addresses for ransomware payments and charged victims paying with Bitcoin an additional charge (10-20% additional charge). He said he had observed. Also, the attacker only requires payment in Monero, but eventually accepts payment in Bitcoin after negotiations. Overall, FinCEN states in the report Observing 17 ransomware incidents where an attacker requested payment on Monero.
“Bitcoin is still used for most payments, but some ransomware stocks are now adding Monero,” Koven said. “But Monero’s liquidity does not encourage large payments, and it is difficult to provide guidance to victims. [to pay with Monero].. Therefore, we believe that Bitcoin is still dominant. “
Cyber criminals also rely on cryptocurrency mixers. This is a paid service that pools streams of cryptocurrency deposits from multiple different users together and returns them at random values. These mixer services (also known as tumblers) are legal and provide more anonymity to users. Another technique, CoinJoins, involves mixing coins from different parties in a Bitcoin transaction, and the output mixes addresses to make tracking more difficult. And a process known as chain hopping involves converting cryptocurrencies and transferring funds between blockchains. All of this happens rapidly and continuously, in a way that was previously difficult to track.
“It’s like a whac-a-mole between law enforcement agencies, the tools they use, and criminals,” Redbord said. “I see money launderers using increasingly sophisticated techniques to move money in cryptocurrencies. There are so many of these types of techniques that malicious people are using today, We also take advantage of these non-compliant exchanges. “
But as malicious individuals become more effective, so do the tools law enforcement uses to protect against these threats, tracking funds, linking suspicious activity to real entities, and transactions. Will be able to monitor. To eliminate crypto assets that may be linked to malicious actors.
