The South Korean Justice Ministry estimates that cryptocurrency-related crimes have caused 2.69 trillion won (about $2.28 billion) of financial damage between July 2017 and June 2019. According to a July 21 report by English-language local media The Korea Herald, the ministry claimed that 132 cryptocurrency-related criminals and fraudsters had been indicted and detained, with another 288 indicted without physical detention during the aforementioned time frame. The report states that, while Justice Minister Park Sang-kim has ordered stern measures against cryptocurrency criminals, a lack of clear regulations on cryptocurrency exchanges has led to an increase in the use of quasi-anonymous or …

United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman announced the arrest of alleged dark web drug dealer Hugh Brian Haney in a press release published on July 18. Per the release, Haney has been charged with money laundering. He allegedly used cryptocurrency to launder more than $19 million of profits earned selling illegal drugs on the now-defunct darknet market Silk Road. Berman commented to the development: “Today’s arrest should be a warning to dealers peddling their drugs on the dark web that they cannot remain anonymous forever, especially when attempting to legitimize their illicit proceeds.” …

Two Israeli brothers have been arrested in connection with the hack of cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex and other crypto-related phishing attacks, finance news outlet Finance Magnates reports on June 23. An Israeli police spokesperson reportedly told Finance Magnates that Eli Gigi and his younger brother Assaf Gigi netted tens of millions of dollars. The two are suspected of being responsible for long-term systematic theft of cryptocurrencies by maliciously obtaining access to other users’ accounts. The two allegedly created credential-stealing clones of major online cryptocurrency exchanges and wallets and sent links to those phishing sites on Telegram groups and other cryptocurrency-related communities. …

Much of digital assets’ appeal stems from the fact that many of them are not affiliated with or controlled by governments, central banks or transnational corporations (at least, not yet). The price paid for the independence from institutions of global capitalism, though, might sometimes be extremely high, as, in the event of cryptocurrency theft, there is no one to appeal to for recourse. Further still, the irreversible nature of blockchain transactions renders it extremely difficult to get the money back once its gone. The villains of the internet love cryptocurrencies for the same reasons. In the last few years, marked …

The cybersecurity company behind major antivirus software NOD32, ESET, reported on June 17 that new Android malware sidesteps Google’s SMS permissions restrictions to get hold of two-factor authentication (2FA) codes received via SMS. Per the report, some malicious apps are capable of accessing one-time-passwords sent to users via SMS by circumventing the restrictions recently implemented by Google. Furthermore, the same technique reportedly also allows for accessing email-based codes. According to the author, the apps in question impersonate Turkish cryptocurrency exchange BtcTurk and phish for login details to the service. The malware, “instead of intercepting SMS messages to bypass 2FA protection …

United States blockchain and crypto investor Michael Terpin has won $75.8 million in a civil case against 21-year-old Nicholas Truglia, who reportedly defrauded him of crypto assets. Reuters reported the news on May 10. Per the report, the California Superior Court last week ordered Manhattan resident Truglia to pay the amount above in compensatory and punitive damages. The amount is reportedly one of the largest court judgments awarded to an individual in the crypto space thus far, Reuters notes. As previously reported, Terpin filed the complaint against Truglia in particular in late December, after first filing a lawsuit against AT&T …

German police, along with Europol, have shut down servers of a dark web marketplace and seized six figures in crypto from the arrested suspects, Europol announced on May 3. The Wall Street Market, reportedly the world’s second-largest dark web market, has been shut down by the German Federal Criminal Police under the authority of the German Public Prosecutor’s office. According to the report, German authorities arrested three suspects and seized over 550,000 euros ($615,000) in cash along with bitcoin (BTC) and monero (XMR) in six figure amounts (actual value unspecified) as well as several cars, computers, hard drives and other …

Illicit crypto mining — or cryptojacking — against consumers “is essentially extinct,” declares a report released by cybersecurity company MalwareBytes on April 23. Per the report, after in-browser mining service CoinHive shut down in early March — when the team claimed that the project had become economically inviable — cryptojacking against consumers has sharply decreased. At the same time, the number of such attacks targeting businesses increased from the last quarter. Furthermore, MalwareBytes also notes that bitcoin (BTC) holders who use Electrum wallets on a Mac have lost over $2.3 million in stolen coins to a Trojanized version of the …

Microsoft Korea has claimed the country is facing an increase in cryptojacking incidents, according to a report from local English-language daily The Korea Times, published on April 22. The findings were announced by Microsoft security program manager Kim Gwi-ryun during a press conference in Seoul today, which accompanied the release of the annual Microsoft Security Intelligence Report. As previously reported, cryptojacking is the practice of using a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to The Korea Times, South Korea's cryptocurrency mining incident rate in 2018 was 0.05% — reportedly 58% lower than …

An indictment has been filed against Afek Zard in Israel over the alleged theft of 74.990.74 Dash (over $9 million) from his roommate, local media News1 reports on April 18. According to CoinMarketCap data, the amount of coins stolen is equivalent to over 0.85% of the total circulating supply of Dash. News1 states that the reported victim, Alexei Yaromenko, was reportedly an early cryptocurrency investor who has accumulated crypto assets since 2013. Yarmolenko reportedly taught Zard about cryptocurrencies and trading them himself before the theft allegedly took place. Per the indictment document filed by attorney Giora Hazan, Zard was in …

A new strain of Trojan malware for Android phones is targeting global users of top crypto apps such as Coinbase, BitPay and Bitcoin Wallet, as well as banks including JPMorgan, Wells Fargo, and Bank of America. The news was reported by technology news outlet The Next Web on March 28. Based on research from prominent cybercrime analytics firm Group-IB, this is reportedly the first time the Trojan — now named “Gustuff” — has been reported or analyzed. The malware is described as being designed for mass infection and is spread by SMS messages with links to load malicious Android package …

Israeli fintech companies that work with forex and crypto trading are being targeted by malware, according to a blog post from threat research department Unit 42 of cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks published on March 19. Per the report, Unit 42 first encountered an older version of the malware in question, Cardinal RAT, in 2017. Since April 2017, Cardinal RAT has been identified when examining attacks against two Israel-based fintech companies engaged in developing forex and crypto trading software. The software is a Remote Access Trojan (RAT), which allows the attacker to remotely take control of the system. The updates …