Australia’s financial intelligence and regulatory agency Austrac has released two financial crime guides to help businesses detect and prevent cryptocurrency and ransomware abuse.
Each guide offers practical advice to help businesses determine if a payment is related to a ransomware attack or someone is using digital currency and blockchain technology to commit crimes like laundering. money, fraud, or terrorist financing.
For example, some of the specific metrics Austrac advises to look out for when determining if someone is using digital currencies to fund terrorism, that is when crowdfunding transactions or campaigns online fundraiser linked to forums focused on ideologically or religiously motivated violent extremism, or where a single client account receives many small, instant deposits transferred to personal wallet.
When it comes to identifying potential scams related to digital currencies, Austrac listed that some potential indicators could include customers who don’t fit the “ordinary profile” of a company. cryptocurrency trader or investor; when the customer has little digital currency knowledge during the onboarding process but buys the digital currency quickly and sends it to another crypto address; and when a customer advises that they are hired to purchase digital currency on behalf of another individual or company.
Meanwhile, several indicators detect when a person is a victim of a ransomware attack, according to Austrac, including when a customer increases the limit in their account and then quickly sends money to a third party ; after an initial large digital money transfer, the customer has little or no further crypto activity; and when a new customer joins wants to make an instant and bulk purchase of digital currency followed by instant withdrawal to an external digital currency address.
“Financial service providers need to be on the lookout for signs of criminals using digital currencies, including their use in ransomware attacks,” said Austrac CEO Nicole Rose.
Guidelines have been released in response to the increase in cyber threats facing Australia. According to the Australian Cybersecurity Center, 500 ransomware attacks were reported in the 2020-21 financial year, an increase of nearly 15% from the previous year.
Just last week, IDCare reported that more than 5,000 details about customers of the former cryptocurrency exchange Alpha were exposed online.
According to IDCare, these details include driver’s licenses, passports, proof of age and photo IDs for 232 Australians and 24 New Zealanders.
IDCare initially discovered the breach in late January when it saw a post for sale on a Chinese-speaking forum for $150, before it was eventually posted for free access on a forum. Another online named Breached.
“This event poses a serious risk to the identity of anyone involved. Due to the nature of the identity documents discovered, we urge anyone with any dealings with AlphaEx to contact AlphaEx. contact us,” IDCare said.
IDCare at the time of its statement said attempts to contact affected individuals directly had been unsuccessful, nor had it attempted to engage former AlphaEx operators “with some presumption.” guesses discovered online about the value of their activity”.
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