Ransomware spreaders or those demanding ransom in return for a decryption key to free up a ransomware attacked encrypted database are saying ‘No’ to Bitcoins these days. It said that cybercriminals are now demanding more private digital currency like Monero, Ethereum, and Zcash in order to avoid being tracked by law enforcement.
From the past few months, certain software service providers such as ‘Chainalysis’ have come up online with a promise to render services such as keeping track of Blockchain transactions and Bitcoins wallets linked to crime or money laundering. They are proving extremely useful in alerting exchanges and preventing fraudulent conversions into traditional cash.
Hence, these web services are said to be offering a helping hand to law enforcement agencies which are investigating cyber attacks such as Ransomware and other malware spread.
In October last year, Europol also raised an alarm in this regard by announcing to the world that cryptocurrencies such as Monero, Ethereum and Zcash have started gaining popularity within the digital underground replacing Bitcoins.
In fact, Monero is said to have turned into a favorite digital currency for those spreading ransomware these days. Because Monero encrypts the recipient’s address on its blockchain and generates a fake address to obscure the real sender. Thus, giving a tough time to the law enforcement agencies to keep a track of such transactions.
On the other hand, Zcash encrypts the true addresses of a sender and the recipient making it impossible to identify the correlations in addresses used in multiple transactions to pinpoint the real one.
The conclusion is that if criminals start moving towards another form of cryptocurrency, it will make it hard for the law enforcement agencies to keep a track of them. This may also give a new headache to organizations who stockpiled bitcoins to use as a ransomware hush cash.
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