Gene Hudson 
Ransomware attackers desire to obtain their ransom cost in a well-liked privateness token, Monero (XMR), as a consequence of its capability to obfuscate sending and receiving wallets, in accordance with a report by blockchain analytics agency, CipherTrace.
In the report titled Current Trends in Ransomware, the analytics agency highlighted the observable traits in ransomware assaults between 2020 and 2021. According to the agency, there was notable development in “double extortion assaults” inside the stated timeframe.
A double extortion assault happens in a scenario the place the hacker not solely steals his victims’ delicate knowledge but in addition encrypts it. This forces the sufferer to pay a ransom to entry the info even because the malicious actor should still have a duplicate.
Premium on Bitcoin for Ransomware The report stated most ransomware attackers obtain their cost in Monero, whereas those that settle for different digital property like Bitcoin often add 10% to twenty% premiums.
“Higher costs for BTC are most definitely seen by the ransomware actors as a premium for coping with the elevated threat in utilizing an simply traceable cryptocurrency like BTC.”
The report added that a minimum of 22 of the greater than 50 ransomware teams settle for solely Monero. An instance is the Everest Group, a Russian-speaking ransomware group that claimed it hacked the US authorities final yr and is “at the moment making an attempt to promote the info for $500,000 price of XMR.”
Another Russia-based REvil ransomware group that was dismantled earlier this yr additionally switched from receiving funds in BTC to XMR in 2020.
However, some teams nonetheless settle for funds in each Monero and BTC. The DarkSide group, which hacked Colonial Pipeline in May 2021, requested ransom in BTC or XMR.
Monero is planning a tough fork.The Monero neighborhood believes the coin’s privateness characteristic supplies its customers with utopian monetary freedom; a number of crypto exchanges have been pressured to delist these privateness cash due to their widespread use by malicious actors.
However, the de-listing is just not a deterrent to the venture builders who’re planning a tough fork in July, which might improve its chain ring measurement from 11 to 16.
This transfer would assist improve anonymity by making it more durable to reverse engineer transactions. The onerous fork additionally intends so as to add view tags to output, implement payment adjustments, and introduce bulletproof.
Oluwapelumi Adejumo Journalist at CryptonomieOluwapelumi is a believer within the transformative energy Bitcoin and the blockchain trade holds.
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