Collaborate Disseminate
Three Americans were charged this week with stealing more than $400 million in a November 2022 SIM-swapping attack. The U.S. government did not name the victim organization, but there is every indication that the money was stolen from the now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had just filed for bankruptcy on that same day. Continue reading Arrests in $400M SIM-Swap Tied to Heist at FTX?
According to crypto-tracking company Chainalysis, the markets probably couldn’t handle it without prices tanking.
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The scams have picked up on Telegram.
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Elliptic raised $60 million in Series C funding. The financing round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, alongside new investment from SoftBank Vision Fund 2. Existing investors AlbionVC, Digital Currency Group, Wells Fargo Strategic Capital, SBI Gro… Continue reading Elliptic raises $60M to enable safe adoption of cryptoassets across financial services
Two new dark web services are marketing to cybercriminals who are curious to see how their various cryptocurrency holdings and transactions may be linked to known criminal activity. Dubbed “Antinalysis” and “AMLBot,” the services purport to offer a glimpse into how one’s payment activity might be flagged by law enforcement agencies and private companies that try to link suspicious cryptocurrency transactions to real people. Continue reading New Anti Anti-Money Laundering Services for Crooks
An unidentified hacker stole $600 million worth of virtual currencies from Poly Network the cryptocurrency company announced Tuesday. Then in an unusual twist, less than 24 hours later, the hacker began to return some of the stolen money after a public plea from the company. As of publication time, the hacker had returned more than $4,772,000 worth of assets, according to the company. Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency-tracking firm, confirmed Wednesday that funds were on the move. The incident is the largest public attack against the decentralized financed industry to date. The identity of the thieves remains unclear. Poly Network offers a service that promises interoperability between different chains of cryptocurrency, which each have their own digital ledger and act independently of one another. A preliminary investigation by cybersecurity firm SlowMist found that the hacker exploited a vulnerability in a feature that allows for the implementation of exchanges across chains. This allowed […]
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The U.S. Department of Justice said today it has recovered $2.3 million worth of Bitcoin that Colonial Pipeline paid to ransomware extortionists last month. The funds had been sent to DarkSide, a ransomware-as-a-service syndicate that disbanded after a May 14 farewell message to affiliates saying its Internet servers and cryptocurrency stash were seized by unknown law enforcement entities. Continue reading Justice Dept. Claws Back $2.3M Paid by Colonial Pipeline to Ransomware Gang
If bitcoin is a roller coaster ride with dizzying heights and rapid drops, one thing is clear: The original cryptocurrency carnival keeps attracting new riders. The price is up, trade volume is rising and new money buys in daily. As a result, the business of bitcoin surveillance is booming. Governments are just barely coming to terms with how bitcoin works, but they want track newer cryptocurrencies like Monero and Zcash that were designed for anonymity beyond what’s available with bitcoin. Elliptic, a United Kingdom-based financial technology startup, launched with one basic goal: Trace bitcoins, identify illegal activity and sell ongoing visibility to governments and private companies to track the currency’s movement. This is possible because bitcoin is inherently transparent, with every unique transaction published on a public ledger, known as the blockchain, that anyone can access. Successfully analyzing the blockchain has become big business. Police use Elliptic’s technology to investigate crime. […]
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Did you lose a bunch of bitcoin from Mt. Gox? The “destination” of the digital currency from bitcoin’s most infamous theft is “definitely” known — but the finders won’t say where those coins are currently located. Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange at the time of its headline-grabbing demise, declared bankruptcy after the theft or disappearance of 850,000 bitcoins valued at $450 million in February 2014, along with $27 million in cash. Although 200,000 were eventually found, the location of the remaining 650,000 remained unknown and the subject of much speculation over the last three years. It turns out that Chainalysis, the investigator for Mt. Gox’s creditors, “definitely” knows where the coins are sitting right now, according to congressional testimony by the firm’s co-founder. Due to the surge in the cryptocurrency’s value since Mt. Gox went down, the 650,000 missing bitcoins are currently worth nearly $2 billion. The legal battles over the missing coins temporarily landed the CEO of […]
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