How cryptocurrency was used for money laundering in 2022
Nethone (acquired by Mangopay)
Know Your Users? to reject only fraudsters
Nethone’s Fraud Intelligence (FI) delivers first-hand Darknet insights about the digital fraud risks your platforms face. Our fraud intelligence team proactively seeks out all fraud schemes that might harm your business.
This newsletter will help you enter the world of the dark web, understand fraudsters’ modus operandi and learn how to secure your business using an advanced anti-fraud solution. Subscribe now to stay ahead of fraudsters.
In this February issue of Nethone's Fraud Intelligence report, we bring you the latest and most relevant fraud news from around the world. From emerging scams to new trends in fraud, we keep you informed:
Fraud activity
The simplest definition of retail fraud is stealing from a commercial retail establishment that causes the retailer to suffer a financial loss. There are numerous methods used to commit retail fraud, both physically in a store and remotely through online channels. Virtual retail fraud on a large scale has increased with a shift towards more eCommerce-focused purchasing environments, and darknet cybercriminals are at the centre of this fraud economy.?
In this article, analysts from DarkOwl examine some of the most common techniques used by cybercriminals, and discussions on retail fraud that they have witnessed in darknet criminal networks.
Read more:?
Since 2020, North Korean hackers have stolen an unprecedented quantity of digital assets, such as cryptocurrency, according to research by United Nations (UN) specialists. According to the investigation, the hackers stole the virtual assets using a variety of techniques, including spear-phishing, ransomware, and hacking of cryptocurrency exchanges. The stolen funds were then used to support the North Korean government's illegal weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs.
Read more:
Telegram is a communication service used by millions worldwide for several purposes. However, it has also developed into a centre for cybercrime activities, such as the sale and disclosure of stolen customer and company information, the emergence of cybercrime gangs, the propagation of hacking tutorials, hacktivism, and the sale of illegal physical goods like drugs and counterfeit goods.
This paper, created by KELA, gives readers a thorough insight into the factors contributing to Telegram's prominence in the cybercrime ecosystem. It covers various platforms' services, goods, cybercrime operations, and the threat actors engaged. The study also includes showcases for each topic, presenting specific examples of the activities on Telegram.
Read the full report:?
Darkweb environment
Analysts at the cyber security company Resecurity have observed a new trend for dedicated mobile apps among dark web shops. Although it currently concerns only dark web shops with drugs, this idea can be quickly adopted by fraudsters selling stolen credit cards, stolen accounts, or other fraud-related goods in the future.
At least 7 Darkweb drug stores have made available dedicated Android apps. All of them were made on the same engine, which may suggest a single developer behind them (it is not new to outsource developers' work in the Darkweb sector).?
These apps are available to download on drug shops' internet websites. Using such an app for selling and communicating with buyers is very handy for criminals who run this type of business. They own an fully control a communication channel, which is very important when doing something nasty. It makes it harder for law enforcement to seize it, and criminals can wipe all the evidence if necessary.?
领英推荐
We must remember that these stores operate only in Russia and certain former Soviet Union countries.?
Read more:
Money Laundering
The Chainanalysis, one of the top blockchain analysis companies, have presented their findings on how cryptocurrency was used for money laundering in the past year. In 2022, $23.8 billion worth of cryptocurrency was sent from illicit blockchain addresses. This is a 68% increase over 2021. More than half of it was sent to the biggest cryptocurrency exchanges, and it is similar to the previous years.?
Such big exchanges play essential roles in money laundering because they allow for crypto to be exchanged into traditional currencies (and this is the final goal of using crypto in this subject). On the other hand, such exchanges have serious measures for detecting money laundering, which is still rare among their smaller competitors.
Read more:
Cybersecurity is becoming increasingly important as businesses face challenges in the current economic downturn.
?Threats the organisation
For many years, software products created by Atlassian have been a part of almost every organisation's software stack. Many departments throughout businesses frequently rely heavily on tools like JIRA, Confluence, Bamboo, and BitBucket.
The constant reliance on and volume of historical data held within these applications has made them a valuable target for attackers, increasing the attack surface. These applications manage projects, handle organizational-wide documentation, or even host the actual code of a product being developed by the organisation.
Read more:
Darknet Summary
Analysts, known as the HUNTER Team from the cyber security company Resecurity have recently completed an investigation into how some notable dark web vendors, mainly from the Russian-speaking world, are still vying for cybercrime dominance since the closure of the Hydra Marketplace. And what better way to entice fraudsters than by improving their service UX, in this case, with convenient-to-use Android mobile apps. To date, such mobile apps offered on the dark web have been mainly used to sell drugs - so why should anyone involved in risk management and anti-fraud need to concern themselves with mobile apps built by online drug dealers?
Listen to Nethone’s Intelligence Specialist Micha? Barba? explain why dark web vendors offer mobile apps to their users and what it could mean for the future of fraud.
Read more: