Bitcoins: BTC-e do you know the Russian exchange? Digital currencies (Bitcoin etc.) are the favorite tool of cybercriminals, as transactions with digital currency they are almost anonymous. This allows cybercriminals to use it underground markets for illegal transactions and collect thousands of dollars from attacks ransomware (WannaCry, Petya, LeakerLocker and Locky to name a few).
Every three and a half we hear about hacking cases of digital currencies or digital ones. What happens to the digital coins stolen by the scammers?
The most recent theft was made at Ethereum, one of the most popular crypto-coins, becoming increasingly valuable. In this online robbery, about half a billion dollars were stolen.
It is obvious that such moves of digital coins lead somewhere. If cybercriminals do not want to keep them in digital form, they will have to cash in for money to be able to use them in the real world.
But how can they be redeemed without being perceived by the Authorities?
If you do not know, there are encrypted exchanges involved in money laundering that work illegally to help cybercriminals easily redeem their digital currencies. Redemption becomes completely anonymous.
According to a recent survey of three researchers Google at Black Hat, over 95% of all Bitcoin payments collected by ransomware victims have been redeemed via a Russian exchange of cryptographic data, called BTC-e, from 2014.
The interesting thing is that just two days before the presentation of Google, one of the founders of the BTC-e exchange, Alexander Vinnik, was arrested by the Greek Police with the category of money laundering worth 4 billion dollars.
"We are discovering redemption points by identifying how money comes out of the Bitcoin network, allowing authorities to withdraw money using conventional financial tracking tools," said three researchers, Luca Invernizzi, Kylie McRoberts and Elie Bursztein.
Bitcoins: The Research Tracking desktop ransomware payments
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Ransomware Payments Monitoring
The researchers followed step by step money (following the money) from various ransomware. Malicious software has attributed to digital thieves at least 25 million dollars over the past two years.
Worst Ransomware:
According to the survey, two ransomware helped cheats to earn the most money Locky and Cerber.
Odds:
Locky won 7,8 alone for millions of dollars and was the first ransomware infection to earn over 1 a million dollars a month. Cerber has been awarding 6,9 with millions of dollars to date with 200.000 dollars a month.
Where do they buy Bitcoins the victims?
Are the Bitcoins favorite parts of the victims? Obviously, victims need BTC to pay for criminals and most victims choose LocalBitcoins, Bithumb and CoinBase to buy BTC, where 90% of victims pay for one transaction.
How Criminals Are Paid:
According to the survey, over 95% of all Bitcoin payments from ransomware were redeemed through the BTC-e, a service operated by 2011.
Google conducted the research in collaboration with New York University researchers, the University of San Diego, California, and the Block Chain Chainalysis company.
As for the BTC-e, many are the ones who believe that the exchange of cryptography has also been involved in exchanging stolen Bitcoins repayments of the exchange Mt. Gox, which closed 2014 after many mysterious robberies.
