All countries have hackers, but some are clearly home to more than others. Chainalysis, a brand specializing in cybersecurity, has just made a report on cybercrime.
According to her, in 2021, Russia-linked cybercriminals extorted $400 million in cryptocurrencies via ransomware. This represents three-quarters (74%) of all extortions carried out last year.
A classification based on three criteria
To be specific, Chainalysis states on its blog that the revenue went to entities “ very likely to be affiliated with Russia in some way “. To confirm this, the brand explained that it associates ransomware with Russia based on at least one of these three criteria:
- Connections to Evil Corp (that’s aptly named), a Russian cybercriminal organization with potential ties to Vladimir Putin’s government.
- The fact that many attacks have avoided the states of the former USSR, and which today are part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The software would therefore be programmed to detect the location of the operating system and avoid computers located in these countries.
- Other criteria include writing documents in Russian.
A real industry made in Russia
By classifying the origin of the attacks in this way, 74% of the funds raised by these attacks would have gone to Russia. Chainalysis even claims that 13% of the extorted funds would have financed services intended for Russian users.
The sums would transit in the form of crypto-currencies, which, for Chainalysis, raises another question: that of money laundering based on crypto and other illegal online activities. However, money laundering would also be carried out by Russian companies.
The firm claims to have tracked dozens of companies based in Moscow’s financial district. According to her, ” all together, these companies receive hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency each quarter, peaking at nearly $1.2 billion in the second quarter of 2021 “. She adds : “ Over a quarter, illicit items represent between 29% and 48% of all funds received by cryptocurrency companies in the city of Moscow “.
The conclusions of Chainalysis join those of other analysts, in particular those of Microsoft. In recent years, Russia has been very successful in the field of cybercrime. The country was accused last year of carrying out the Ghostwriter influence operation. And even if we stick to money-making operations, like malware aimed at turning computers into bitcoin miners, ransomware has indeed become an industry in Russia.
On the same subject :
Cryptocurrency and cybercrime: Europol debunks preconceived ideas
Source: Business Insider
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