Earlier today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury updated its Specially Designated Nationals List, adding several individuals and a number of cryptocurrency addresses. One of the individuals added was Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits — a Russian national, accused of interfering in the U.S. elections. In addition to disclosing his personal information, the site lists a number of cryptocurrency addresses that he allegedly controls. One of the Ethereum addresses, found at 0xa7e5d5a720f06526557c513402f2e6b5fa20b00, does not seem to exist, however. Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury. There was likely a mixup somewhere in the chain of command and the Treasury meant to blacklist 0xA7e5d5A720f06526557c513402f2e6B5fA20b008 …

Sept. 10 updates to the U.S. Treasury's sanctions include Russian nationals who allegedly worked to interfere in U.S. elections. The updates specifically target a laundry list of crypto wallet addresses associated with these accused hackers. The new specially designated nationals include St. Petersburg residents Anton Nikolaeyvich Andreyev and Artem Mikhaylovich Lifshits and addresses associated with these two including Bitcoin, Litecoin, ZCash, Dash and Ether. This is not the first time that the Treasury's Office of Foreign Asset Control has targeted crypto addresses. In March, OFAC added two Chinese nationals who aided North Korea's hacking program in laundering its ill-gotten gains. …

Crypto exchange Eterbase recently fell victim to a hack of its hot wallets. According to a statement issued by the Slovak Republic-based exchange, hackers extracted approximately $5.4 million from the exchange’s accounts on August 8. Shortly thereafter, Eterbase assured users that law enforcement had already been informed about the incident. The company also said that they’ve contacted all major exchanges that may receive these coins at some point, likely in the hope of recovering some of the missing funds. The exchange did not specifically disclose which firms had been contacted, nor how the attack was accomplished due to “ongoing investigations” …

Government officials in Argentina are refusing to negotiate with a ransomware group that forced them to briefly close all immigration checkpoints on Aug. 27. According to a Sept. 6 report on Bleeping Computer, a group of Netwalker ransomware hackers breached Argentina's immigration agency, Dirección Nacional de Migraciones, on Aug. 27 and initially demanded a $2 million payment to restore its servers. "Your files are encrypted,” stated a ransom note on a Tor payment page sent to the immigration agency. “Only way to decrypt your files is [sic] buy the decrypter program.” The group posted a select batch of sensitive data …

British multinational security company BAE Systems and the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT, have published a report revealing how cybercriminals launder cryptocurrency. According to the study Follow the Money money laundering cases via crypto are still relatively small compared to the huge volumes of cash laundered through traditional methods like wire transfers. But there are some notable examples and the report goes in-depth into the money laundering methods employed by Lazarus Group, a well-known hacking gang sponsored by the North Korean regime. Lazarus typically steals the crypto funds from an exchange and then starts to pass transactions …

A Shift Crypto employee successfully deployed a ransom attack on Trezor and KeepKey hardware wallets last May. While Trezor released a fix on September 2, KeepKey has yet to fix the issue. According to a blog post published on September 2, the vulnerability affected all cryptocurrencies on affected devices. The exploit, which was first spotted on April 15 by developers Shift Crypto, also affected KeepKey wallets — which were originally based on a fork of Trezor’s code and likely operate on similar foundations. When asked about the vulnerability, a KeepKey representative apparently commented that a fix had not yet been …

Hackers took over one of the Twitter accounts linked to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and posted messages asking his followers to make crypto donations. According to a report from news outlet India Today, Modi's Twitter account narendramodi_in, which is associated with his personal website and mobile app, was targeted by a group of hackers operating under the alias ‘John Wick.’ Several Tweets were posted on Sept. 2 telling the prime minister’s 2.5 million followers to ”donate generously to PM National Relief Fund for Covid-19.” At least two wallet addresses for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) were visible for some …

Details of a previous Electrum wallet hack surfaced following the massive 1,400 Bitcoin (BTC) theft that hit headlines a few days ago. "I had a similar situation 2 months ago," a Github user named Cryptbtcaly posted on the social media platform on Aug. 31. The user claimed someone pilfered 36.5 BTC from one of their wallet addresses. The BTC reportedly ended up spread across five different addresses. "Some of the stolen Bitcoin went to Binance, but they ignore my appeals and do not return," cryptbtcaly added. Details of a larger hack surfaced on Aug. 30, when a different Githubber reported …

On Aug. 30, a Github user made a post about losing 1,400 Bitcoin (BTC) via an elaborate hack that affected his Electrum wallet. On-chain analysis indicates that the hackers had a Binance account and that some of the transactions used to move the stolen coins may have originated in St. Petersburg, Russia. However, It is important to note that conclusions afforded by on-chain research are generally more probabilistic than deterministic. On-chain analysis of the hack. Source: Cointelegraph, Crystal Blockchain. Even so, there is no clarity on how the attack was perpetrated, as Electrum's software is considered to be secure if …

The Ethereum Classic (ETC) network was hit by another 51% attack on August 29, causing the reorganization of more than 7,000 blocks just weeks after proposing security upgrades. In a tweet, Ethereum Classic confirmed the attack and promised it is working on potential solutions to the problem. “While ETC is still making progress in evaluating proposed solutions, we are aware of the current risk to the network at these low hash rate levels. To miners, exchanges, and other service providers we suggest keeping confirmation requirements levels well above 7K for now.” The attack comes a few weeks after developers proposed …

Bitcoin was down a bit this week, stopping just above $11,000. That increase in volatility is only to be expected, say some experts, as we approach the end of some BTC futures and options contracts. Other contributors to increased volatility include Bitcoin’s long period of consolidation and a key resistance level. But what happens next? World leaders have been discussing the role of cryptocurrencies during The Great Reset, the time that will follow the end of the pandemic and the reopening of world economies. As some leaders look for a new kind of capitalism, the cryptocurrency industry is hoping for …

A group of North Korean hackers is engaged in a massive campaign targeting U.S. financial institutions and cryptocurrency exchanges around the world — with U.S. authorities warning of the high level of threat it poses to the country. According to an alert issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), agencies including the FBI, the U.S. Cyber Command, and the Department of the Treasury are moinotiring the resurgence of the North Korea-sponsored hacking group, BeagleBoyz. The hackers have not been as active in the last few years as the notorious Lazarus Group – another hacking group from the hermit …