Tinder Bitcoin Scams and Other Crypto Hustles to Avoid
With the Bitcoin price now entering a bull run cycle, Tinder Bitcoin scams and a range of other crypto rip-offs are on the rise - here's what to look out for.
Ransomware and cryptocurrency: A match made in hell
Ransomware attacks are at an all-time high in 2021. With the hackers choosing Bitcoin as the payment of choice, governments worldwide are scrambling for solutions - some of which could actually be good for the legitimacy of crypto overall.
Will ransomware attacks force government institutions to HODL Bitcoin?
Local governments in the US continue to be targeted by ransomware attacks. A number of states have been forced to pay a ransom to regain access to their systems. With the number and sophistication of ransomware attacks increasing, will government institutions be forced to stockpile Bitcoin as a hedge against bad actors?
Bitcoin ransomware attacks on the rise
Companies and governments around the world are being targeted by ransomware attackers. The hackers encrypt data and disable IT systems before demanding payment in exchange for the decryption key.
Size of bitcoin ransomware market ‘overhyped’ in the media
The rise of bitcoin ransomware attacks has been covered extensively in the media in the past 12 to 18 months. One pundit has even suggested that one of the reasons why the price of bitcoin has rallied so much is because companies are stockpiling bitcoin to mitigate the effects of potential future ransomware attacks.
Ransomware Payments in the Bitcoin Ecosystem
Ransomware can prevent a user from accessing a device and its files until a ransom is paid to the attacker, most frequently in Bitcoin. With over 500 known ransomware families, it has become one of the dominant cybercrime threats for law enforcement, security professionals and the public. However, a more comprehensive, evidence-based picture on the global direct financial impact of ransomware attacks is still missing. In this paper, we present a data-driven method for identifying and gathering information on Bitcoin transactions related to illicit activity based on footprints left on the public Bitcoin blockchain. We implement this method on-top-of the GraphSense open-source platform and apply it to empirically analyze transactions related to 35 ransomware families. We estimate the lower bound direct financial impact of each ransomware family and find that, from 2013 to mid-2017, the market for ransomware payments has a minimum worth of USD 12, 768, 536 (22, 967.54 BTC). We also find that the market is highly skewed with only a few number of players responsible for the majority of the payments. Based on these research findings, policy-makers and law enforcement agencies can use the statistics provided to understand the size of the illicit market and make informed decisions on how best to address the threat.
Bitcoin income from WannaCry ransomware attacks expected to increase
A massive round of ransomware attacks was observed on Friday across the globe. The attackers successfully infected large institutions and companies in about 150 countries, including the United States, United Kingdom, Spain, Russia, Taiwan, France, and Japan.
Bank customers extorted for ten percent of balances
The clientele of a privacy-focused bank in the tiny European country of Liechtenstein, Valartis Bank, received an email on Wednesday demanding that ten percent of their account balances be liquidated and sent to a hacker, via Bitcoin.
Hacker holds San Francisco railway to ransom, demands 100 bitcoins
The San Francisco Municipal Railway (MUNI) has fallen victim to a ransomware attack. The entire ticketing system was taken offline on Friday evening, and stayed down all day Saturday, with the message: "You Hacked, ALL Data Encrypted. Contact For Key([email protected])ID:681” appearing on MUNI agents’ computer screens.
Large UK businesses are holding bitcoin to pay ransoms
Based in Fort Lauderdale Florida, Citrix is a software corporation founded on a core principle, “to make the world’s apps and data secure and easy to access.” Over 400,000 organizations and over 100 million users across the globe use Citrix solutions, generating the company $3.28 billion in revenue during 2015. The American multinational recently commissioned Censuswide to quizz 250 IT and security specialists in UK companies with 250 or more employees, “to glean further insights as to their strategies to defend against cyber and ransomware attacks.”
CryptXXX set to become the worst bitcoin-stealing ransomware yet
Bitcoin has a new and potentially considerable threat to its reputation, if California cybersecurity firm Proofpoint is correct. Last week, the company [warned](https://www.proofpoint.com/us/threat-insight/post/cryptxxx-new-ransomware-actors-behind-reveton-dropping-angler) that a previously undocumented ransomware sample that they found, CryptXXX, would not only be encrypting files locally and on all mounted drives, “it’s stealing Bitcoins and a large range of other data.”
Chubb tackles claim increase with ransomware focused product
Ransomware is a form of malware that restricts access to data on infected computer systems. It generally propagates as a trojan, where the file initially seems to be legitimate, but can take on different forms. Some types restrict access to an infected computer, others systematically encrypt files on a system’s hard drive. No matter the style, a ransom is extorted to regain access to the data, typically in a digital currency such as bitcoin or pre-paid cash vouchers.
Los Angeles medical center pays 40 bitcoins to ransomware extortionists
Around the fifth of February an "internal emergency" was declared at the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles, due to a system-wide ransomware infection.
