The analytical company Chanalysis presented statistics on the income of fraudsters from the use of ransomware, according to which, over the past year, the income of criminals has fallen by 40%.
The main reasons were enhanced security measures in cryptocurrency companies, as well as the unwillingness of victims to pay extortionists. According to the report, the main obstacle for attackers was the mechanism of the blockchain: transparency, which allows you to view any transaction, helps to quickly fight fraud.
Over the past year, criminals have used decentralized exchanges (DEXs) in 48% of cases to redistribute funds. In 2021, only 39% of criminals used such exchanges. The use of cryptocurrency mixers has also become more frequent – from 11% to 15%.
However, despite the drop in revenue, the number of various ransomware programs has increased dramatically. In the first half of 2022, there were assets of over 10,000 unique programs. At the same time, the average life expectancy of the program is decreasing: now it is 70 days, in 2021 it was 153 days, and in 2020 – 265 days. This means that anti-ransomware tools are constantly improving.
Earlier, US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said that over the past two years, North Korean hackers have stolen more than $1 billion in cryptocurrencies and fiat currencies to create nuclear weapons.
Source: Bits
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