Ransomware has been a plague for quite some time now, yet hardly any culprits seem to be apprehended by law enforcement these days. Chainalysis, a company, specializing in tracking Bitcoin transactions, recently stated how more ransomware-related arrests would be coming soon. Hackers are prone to making mistakes which will eventually come to bite them in the rear.
Over the past year and a half, the number of ransomware attacks has increased exponentially. Cyber criminals demand Bitcoin payments in the hopes of people never tracing the money to its recipient. Chainalysis, a startup focusing on tracking Bitcoin payments, has been working closely together with law enforcement agencies.
According to a Chainalysis spokesperson, the fruits of this labour will start paying off soon. Investigations are coming to a close, and the time for arresting people is drawing closer. No specifics were revealed at this time. We do know the company is working together with law enforcement in Europe, Asia, and the US.
In fact, Chainalysis claims several arrests have already taken place thanks to their involvement. The DD4BC extortion group was brought to its knees by tracking the Bitcoin payments in question. Many criminals assume cryptocurrency is anonymous, but that is far from the case.
As a result of Chainalysis software becoming more common, the number of jurisdictions where criminals can operate in will reduce. It will take several more years before this concept is embraced by law enforcement agencies all over the world, though. Banks are also taking a keen interest in Chainalysis, as they want to use the toolset to fight money laundering efforts with Bitcoin.
What their software does is act as a search engine for blockchain ledgers. In a way, the software is capable of linking transactions to real identities. Moreover, they also provide reports to financial institutions regarding blockchain activity of their customers. So far, nearly 5,0000 suspicious activity reports about Bitcoin have been filed in the US over the past year.
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