Almost 12 weeks ago i.e on May 12th, 2017, the digital world witnessed a ransomware outbreak known as WannaCry Cyber attack which targeted more than 250,000 computers across 150 countries. The hackers involved in this attack demanded a payment of $300 to $600 in Bitcoins in order to free up the data on the targeted computers.
Sources reporting to Cybersecurity Insiders say that more than $140,000 worth of digital currency was cashed by hackers through this attack which was launched by a North Korean government funded hackers group called Lazarus. The bitcoins gained as ransom was stored in three Bitcoin wallets which remained untouched since then.
But yesterday, twitter bot named @actual ransom set up by a media association named Quartz, buzzed with tweets that the money from the three accounts was being transferred to new accounts.
@actual ransom twitter feed which was set up to monitor the latest on Wannacry earnings reported that the money got transferred to 9 other bitcoins wallets.
Europol, the European Union’s Law enforcement agency, chose to remain silent on this issue. But it admitted that the earnings of Wannacry Hackers which were stored in 3 bitcoins wallet since May’17 were split into 9 other e-wallets yesterday.
Europol said that it cannot reveal such details until the investigation gets concluded, which it expects to happen by the end of August this year.
Security experts said that the ransom earned from Wannacry Cyber attack was being moved to new accounts in order to make the payment less traceable.
Bitcoins experts say that Wannacry hackers probably might be using financial services called “Tumblers” which help them break funds in small transactions which can be then cashed into hard currency later.
Quartz which keeps a tab on Global economy said that it has set up bots to track the 9 bitcoins wallets to which the ransom gained from the WannaCry cyber attack was transferred.
The team of experts who are monitoring the crypto currency says that WannaCry cash will surely be moved to physical accounts by this month end. And the move is said to help the law enforcement track down the culprits in a much easier way.
