Cryptocurrency — The New Dark Net Target
As the phrase goes, criminals follow the money. It looks like the Dark Net adversaries are after the high-value cryptocurrencies that have reached stratospheric valuations. A couple of research groups that monitor, or stalk, the underground forums are seeing a new trend. Instead of posting their wares or services to other cybercriminals, they are calling for research papers. It is hard to call them white papers, but perhaps dark research papers, on how to steal their most coveted asset, cryptocurrency. Here is the link: https://www.intel471.com/blog/cryptocurrency-hack-cybercrminal-contest
Over the past month, operators of one of the top Russian-language cybercrime forums have been running a “contest,” calling for the community to submit papers that examine how to target cryptocurrency-related technology. In the announcement made on April 20, 2021, the forum’s administrator called for papers that covered unorthodox ways to steal private keys and wallets, unusual cryptocurrency mining software, smart contracts, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), and more.
GameChanger
When you stop to consider this shift, it makes perfect sense. The Colonial Pipeline attack by ransomware code from the Dark side organization ticked off the U.S. security agencies. As a defensive move, the supposed culprits posted an almost apology and took…