'How Cryptocurrency Gave Birth to the Ransomware Epidemic'

"Cryptocurrency has changed the game of cybercrime," argues Vice's Christian Devolu, in a new episode of their video series CRYPTOLAND. "Hackers and cybergangs have been locking down the data of large corporations, police departments, and even hospitals, and demanding ransom — and guess what they're asking for? Cryptocurrency!"

In short, argues an article accompanying the episode, cryptocurrency "gave birth to the ransomware epidemic."

Slashdot reader em1ly shares one highlight from the video: The team visits a school district in Missouri ["just one of around 1,000 U.S. schools hacked last year with ransomware"] that was the victim of a ransomware attack. ["Luckily, the school's backups were not impacted...."]
Another interesting observation from the article: When ransom payments do happen, companies like Chainalysis can track the Bitcoin through the blockchain, identifying the hackers' wallets and collaborating with law enforcement in an attempt to recover the funds or identify the hackers themselves.

Re:

[Z00L00K]

Not really a good thing - before it was a limited scope since it would be harder to sell to ID thieves and it also was specific data, not just any data.

With cryptocurrency you can just lock all data and don't care about the content and that has a bigger payoff.

So only way would be if the banks stop trades in cryptocurrency - and that has already started. There are people today sitting on cryptocurrency that they can't cash in.

Re:

[rantrantrant]

Who says they don't sell it to identity thieves too? It's all money to them. & how much easier is it to trade stolen data on the dark web with cryptocurrencies these days? Nope, there's no good side to this shit show.

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

Who says they don't sell it to identity thieves too?

Ransomware incentivizes companies to secure their systems, which leads to less data compromised and less identity theft.

I used to get notices several times each year that my personal info was lost in a compromise. But with the rise of ransomware, that hasn't happened to me since 2019.

Companies are fixing their systems because they can no longer externalize the cost of poor security.

Re:

[rantrantrant]

And now there's a $multibillion global industry that profits from fucking up people's, companies' & govts' computers & it's only going to get worse. Crappy security used to be the excuse. Now they're getting more sophisticated, organised & capable & are hacking into better protected systems. Do you think that maybe it'll continue to get worse until govts deal with the underlying cryptocurrency problem?

Re: "Oh noez it wuz de haxx0rz!"

[RandomUsername99]

Yes. Consequences. All those idiots who had the poor sense to be hospitalized at places vulnerable to unpatched zero day exploits targeted by well-funded black hat groups in Eastern Europe. Shouldâ(TM)ve had that stroke somewhere else! Youâ(TM)re either a sad edgelord, donâ(TM)t know what the word âoeconsequencesâ means, or are morally bankrupt and should cease contact with other humans until you address that.

Re:

[sjames]

What makes you so sure the ransomware doesn't also exfiltrate the data so it can be sold to 'identity thieves'?

Re:

[Kremmy]

I miss the good old days of ransomware. When they only pretended to do the encryption part and expected people to pay to remove a pop up window.

Re:

[usedtobestine]

Yes, but 'Today's hackers don't require you to fill out bank paperwork because you are withdrawing large sums of cash to pay a ransom because you didn't spend money on IT security' would not be as inflamatory headline.

Re:

[GameboyRMH]

This is incredibly misleading. Less than 10 pieces of ransomware had ever existed before cryptocurrencies. They turned ransomware from an ultra-rare curio of the malware world into a mainstream bread-and-butter moneymaker.

Re:

[NoMoreACs]

This is incredibly misleading. Less than 10 pieces of ransomware had ever existed before cryptocurrencies. They turned ransomware from an ultra-rare curio of the malware world into a mainstream bread-and-butter moneymaker.

This.

I have been Posting about this incestuous relationship between Cryptocurrency and RansomWare for several years now.

Get rid of Cryptocurrency, and Ransomware will all but vanish in no time.

Re:

[Kremmy]

But it wasn't until last half decade or so that ransomware gained the ability to use off the shelf encryption technology to actually mess with the data. They used to just be scareware.

Ironically, ransomware and money laundering..

[Powercntrl]

..are what keeps the major cryptocurrencies from crashing to zero. Even when the speculation market gets completely spooked and panic selling ensues, there's still demand created by criminals who have no other means of moving their ill-gotten gains. Crime is essentially the backbone of the cryptocurrency economy - it isn't the entire organism, but it keeps it from collapsing.

Re:Ironically, ransomware and money laundering..

[Registered Coward v2]

..are what keeps the major cryptocurrencies from crashing to zero. Even when the speculation market gets completely spooked and panic selling ensues, there's still demand created by criminals who have no other means of moving their ill-gotten gains. Crime is essentially the backbone of the cryptocurrency economy - it isn't the entire organism, but it keeps it from collapsing.

Exactly. At some point, regulation will result in making it difficult to convert the gains into real cash, lessening the demand for it and what sustains the price. No doubt the means to convert it will still exist, but the traceability will make it a lot harder to cover tracks once governments step in and make it costly for companies to accept crypto without vetting it first.

Re:

[nuckfuts]

Exactly. At some point, regulation will result in making it difficult to convert the gains into real cash...

I think you are being a bit naive if you believe that the people who author our laws are interested in stamping out money laundering. Many of them rely on it themselves to avoid paying taxes, or are beholden to others that do. Witness things like the The Panama Papers [wikipedia.org] and similar revelations in the past few years.

Even before cryptocurrency this was apparent. Why is it that monies transferred to offshore accounts have been treated as untraceable? It's not for lack of capability, since computer transactions a

Re:

[dcw3]

"I think you are being a bit naive if you believe there's a vast conspiracy"

FTFY

Re:

[Registered Coward v2]

Even before cryptocurrency this was apparent. Why is it that monies transferred to offshore accounts have been treated as untraceable? It's not for lack of capability, since computer transactions are easily logged. It's for lack of will to do so.

Bank secrecy laws play a part as well; and of course bankers willing to look the other way. The very nature of blockchain technology makes it much more traceable, since it's designed to provide a secure record of transactions, IMHO. Of course, someone could create a private currency based on teh same technology, but that would limit its usefulness to a small group and make cashing out hard.

Re:

[gweihir]

Yes, pretty much. In essence any currency is worthless and will pretty fast crash to zero. The influx of "greater fools" can ultimately not stop or prevent that. What gives it value is that it is being used as a currency. This points to significant criminal activity because that is the only actual use all the cryptocurrencies have.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

So they can still use it to... barter for... crimes? I'm not sure that's well thought out.

Companies paying ransom gave birth to this

[ffkom]

Ransomware would not be a viable and successful business model had so many companies and organizations not decided to pay ransom. As long as companies gamble on saving money by not keeping offline backups and not investing in technical security (rather than snake oil security products and cover-your-ass policies), but then pay ransom when they loose the gamble, the ransomware business with continue to thrive - regardless of what "currency" (or goods) the ransom is paid in.

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. I think that we need to make paying ransom for these cases illegal, with the ones doing it going to prison when found out. Just call it "financing a criminal enterprise".

Re:

[dcw3]

Indeed. I think that we need to make paying ransom for these cases illegal, with the ones doing it going to prison when found out. Just call it "financing a criminal enterprise".

Really? What about cases where it's a life and death matter? What about public utilities?

It's one thing when it's just the loss of some data. But in many cases, it's not so simple.

Re:

[gweihir]

Really? What about cases where it's a life and death matter? What about public utilities?

It's one thing when it's just the loss of some data. But in many cases, it's not so simple.

In that case, definitely send the ones responsible for the missing risk management and recovery strategy to prison. Still deny them the option of paying. In case you have been living under a rock: Paying the ransom often does not get you in business again or does so far too slowly.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

Yes and rape wouldn't be viable if so many women decided not to prosecute. By all means, let's blame them.

Re:

[EnsilZah]

The company I worked for got hit by ransomware a couple of years ago.
We were lucky that one of the guys working on the weekend noticed something weird was going on our network storage, and we also had some of the data duplicated at another site, so we ended up not paying, but it still set us back like three months.
I can definitely see how someone given the options of either paying the ransom and maybe getting their data back or having their company of 200 people go bankrupt would choose the former.

Much like TOR's role in spreading digital crime

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

Prior to the release and spread of TOR by our IC and the creation of the TOR Hidden Services system, the feds and our international partners had largely won the war on CP online. It was a crime that existed on the periphery and was easy to track down. That's not even counting the other contraband markets that flourish on TOR thanks to TOR Hidden Services.

This is why I have always believed that Bitcoin was created by the US IC as an apology to law enforcement for unleashing the absolute legal nightmare that

Re:

[mmell]

Not that I disagree with what I think is your takeaway point, that criminals often make mistakes when using obfuscation techniques such as TOR and VPN - but even when misused, they still present an obstacle to be overcome. Does poor ITSEC give the FBI et. al. a new set of tools to go after criminals? Absolutely!

There's a difference here, though - TOR and VPN's were created as a response to the excesses of the RIAA/MPAA and more importantly, vast numbers of humans trapped in politically repressive environ

That's not why TOR was created

[DeplorableCodeMonkey]

There's a difference here, though - TOR and VPN's were created as a response to the excesses of the RIAA/MPAA

Read the actual history, summarized here [wikipedia.org].

TL;DR, the military created TOR to protect US intelligence communications in hostile foreign countries. In other words, it was absolutely not created with altruistic reasons in mind, and has been a cancer on the West where it essentially has crippled law enforcement's ability to reliably stop CP distribution.

Has it ever occurred to any of its advocates that th

Re:

[mmell]

Hmmm . . . you're right. TOR was created for military use first, sort of like TCP/IP. My mistake.

I'm still not sure I can see my way clear to say bitcoin is a government conspiracy, at least no more than Twitter or Facebook are. After all, they use TCP/IP, a military communications protocol developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Come to think of it, email (SMTP) relies upon TCP/IP. Hey, come to think of it, HTTP and HTTPS both lie on top of the TCP/IP layer. Uh . . . Slashdot is

Down side?

[Orlando]

Wait, you mean there is a down side to crypto-currency?

Re:

[DontBeAMoran]

I blame all Australian crypto-currency users. /rimshot [instantrimshot.com].

Re:

[mmell]

Of course. It's just like the Schwartz, it's got an up side and a down side.

No surprise there

[OneHundredAndTen]

So far, cryptocurrencies have proved to be good for speculating, for money laundering, and for extortion. After more than 13 years. And almost no one uses them as a replacement for ordinary currencies - which is, apparently, what they were developed for.

say it with me

[shentino]

"Correlation does not mean causation"

Crypto may well not have caused ransomware, maybe it's just an attractive medium for ransoms.

Re:

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading comprehension fail. The headline said it was the cause of the epidemic, not ransomware itself. Ransomware was a great criminal idea, until payment because an obvious problem. Enter crypto, and for a time, ransomware is booming, until it becomes obviously problematic.

Other Births

[Joz]

In other news, the Internet gave birth to computer viruses, spam, scamming from across the globe, and cryptocurrency itself, along with social media, which has given birth to spreading extremism and eroding democracy.
The development of pharmaceuticals gave birth to the opioid epidemic, television gave birth to the obesity epidemic, and the automobile gave birth to a million road deaths per year.

Re:

[h33t l4x0r]

I was recently ransomwared by a Nigerian prince who rick-rolled me and told me all my base are belong to him.

lol

[nyet]

ok boomer

Think of ransomware as a public service...

[h33t l4x0r]

This time you can pay to get your resources back. Next time you might not. So secure your network and start doing backups.

National cryptocurrencies to the rescue?

[JosephZ]

Cryptocurrency may also lead to increased general inflation because cryptocurrency competes with traditional currency for the purchase of goods. Since the rules of regulation are different, cryptocurrency may be advantaged with less oversight. National cryptocurrencies may provide the convenience of using cryptocurrencies without providing the means of an alternative under-regulated economic system operating within national borders. I would not be surprised if many nations develop their official versions of