🇬🇧Crypto Intelligence: 2018 Crime Situation
Archive, January 20, 2019, 2018 crypto crime trend
The periodical tracking shot brings some interesting considerations, for the whole year and for what it can be.
The main sources are this month’s reports by Chainanalysis and Ciphertrace, authority in the matter of analysis and dedicated services .
The numbers match, with an amount of about 1 billion USD stolen and consequently recycled globally in 2018, equal to 3.6 times the amount of 2017. It is rightly observed that it should not misleen the fact that the amount of illicit crypto has decreased in percentage terms compared to the past : the global market for the strictly monetary cryptoeconomy has increased instead.
Beyond numbers the macro-trends indicate :
- that roubles have as a target, in order of decreasing quantitative importance, exchangers, the ICO scam and investment Ponzi schemes ;
- the market must be kept under constant observation as new methodologies face to it : so they must be recognized and monitored. It is the case of the SIM scam method, which combines social engineering and hacking to achieve the purpose ;
- the dark web, after a brief moment of loss following the closure of some marketplaces, continues to grow constantly : the trend is the instant rebound, of customers and suppliers, from one marketplace to the other when an actor is subjected to repressive measures.
Never as in the cryptoeconomy crime is important to talk about trends rather than numbers : these are just the tip of the iceberg, for illustration and media use, of the phenomenon. As repeated for years, finding confirmation precisely in specific reference analyses, the approach to crypto intelligence must be holistic : it will not be possible, in today’s western context, to regulate and control the phenomenon beforehand (and quantify even the exact amount in terms of illegal) because it is impossible given the nature of the same. It is a complex system in which the rules of finance have been contaminated by new variables completely, avulse compared to the past : it is from observation of variables that can be traced back to the case of crime and do not hope that the variables fall into past and meaningless classifications and then act.
There are two interesting points in this respect that are being made by reports.
The first is bandits behavior in switching from the virtual world to the world of fiat currencies, so recycling, the weak point of the crypto misdeeds. You are attend the presence of two typologies : the first formed by structured organizations of hacking, the second the small groups or the ‘lone wolf’.
The characteristics of both are to wait at least one month from acting, in order to calm the media clamour due to the robberies. Later, the first typology conducts thousands of cross-transfers, to obfuscate the origin and the tracking of money, and tends to convert as soon as possible. The second remains silent even for a year and a half and converts later directly, without worrying too much about the tracking. In both cases, no relevance of interest emerges with regard to the trend of quotes and the amount of fees to be recognised for transactions, conversions and obfuscation.
The second cue, which confirms what was predicted years ago, is the detection of casuistries for which a cryptocurrency is created with digital clearing house aim, for the regulation of exchanges within criminal organizations, and among those with temporarily shared interests. The phenomenon is presumed to grow even the current modelling of stablecoins and smart contract available on the market and from which to draw from.
It is emphasises how the analyses of the two companies are based on events that have happened and brought to light : nothing can be said about what is not known. This for the ‘not to report’ trend to the authorities all the problems, by the most structured operators, cause not to run into trust crisis. The speech is even more valuable if the types of crimes do not originate from theft or scam but from money laundering based on tax evasion, corruption, purchase / sale of prohibited/quota free/black listed products, all extremely difficult to extrapolate.
On regulatory side, following sector recommendations, and more with AMLD5 on the way, the world trend is to tighten the KYC/T (Know Your Clients / Transactions) coercion to operators.
Finally, they report on the one hand the publication of the guide to the cryptoasset of the British financial authority, the FCA, aimed at financial operators who come into contact with the crypto perimeter for demand and supply. In it FCA, among other things, puts at the disposal a dedicated structure to actors to address the phenomenon according to appropriate guidelines. In other context, it is highlighted by Ghost Security Group, a redividing activity on Twitter by Bank al-Ansar, the ISIS para-bank imagined gone missing for contingent reasons. On the tweet, he invites contributions to the cause by means of cryptocurrency-mediated cryptocurrency deposits on Telegram.
This post was originally published on January 20, 2019, in Italian version on www.thescanner.info .This is adaptation of a neuronal Italian/English AI translation by IBM Watson.
