Increase in crypto-ransomware attacks in the first half of 2023: Chain analysis

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Crypto crime has fallen overall in the first six months of 2023, but the volume of payments to ransomware attackers has increased and is on track for its second-largest annual total on record, the analytics firm said on Wednesday. of Chainalysis blockchain. [July 12].

Cryptocurrency prices have been steadily rising this year, following a series of bankruptcies at top crypto firms in 2022 that dented token prices and left investors with heavy losses.

Crypto inflows to illicit services identified by Chainalysis – which include darknet markets, ransomware actors, malware, scams, fraud stores and child pornography material – reached $2.8 billion over the course of six months of 2023, down 65% from $8 billion in the same period last year, Chainalysis said.

But these figures do not include flows to entities subject to global sanctions. Transactions associated with sanctioned entities accounted for 44% of the record $20.1 billion in crypto crime in 2022, Chainalysis said in January.

Revenues from scams also declined, which Chainalysis says bucked the long-standing trend that people are more susceptible to scams in times of rising prices, due to “the exuberance of the market” and “FOMO” (fear of missing out). But there has been an increase in the number of people falling victim to identity theft scams, in which fraudsters pretend to be a law enforcement officer or other authority figure to extort money, a said Chainalysis.

Crypto payments to ransomware attackers reached $449.1 million in the first half of 2023, up $175.8 million from the same period last year, Chainalysis said. If this continues, ransomware attackers will have their second-best year on record, analysts added.

“Big game hunting – that is, the targeting of large, deep-pocketed organizations by ransomware attackers – appears to have rebounded from a lull in 2022. Meanwhile, the number of successful small attacks has also increased,” Chainalysis said. .

The numbers from Chainalysis likely underrepresent the role of crypto in all crimes. For example, they exclude when cryptocurrencies are the proceeds of non-crypto crimes, such as when cryptocurrency is used for payment in drug trafficking.

(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Sinead Cruise and Mark Potter)

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