Digital cash is very beneficial for cyber thieves for laundering money.
Crypto-currencies and virtual money systems are a direct way for cyber-thieves to launder stolen funds, says a research.
It’s not only useful in ransomware, but also virtual cash was also helping clean up other sources of stolen cash, says a criminologist Dr. Mike Maguire.According to him, what made it attractive to tech-savvy thieves is Bitcoin’s anonymity.
Dr McGuire went on interviews with cyber-thieves, police reports and dark web searches for the study on the whole matter.
Extremely difficult to trace
A very large amount of cash which is generated by the cyber crime is being laundered every year. Between $80bn (£57bn) and $200bn of cash is being generated every year according to Dr. McGuire, drawing on a study by US analyst firm Rand released in early 2018.
A significant amount of the cash is laundered through various crypto-currencies and digital payment systems to hide its origins, says Dr McGuire. He had carried out the research for security firm Bromium. His study sought to understand those plenty of methods that cyber-crime gangs generally use to clean up cash which is being extracted from individuals and businesses by them.
He said that there is no surprise to see that the cyber-thieves are quickly adopting virtual currencies for money laundering.
“The attraction is obvious,” he said. “It’s digital, so is an easily convertible way of acquiring and transferring cyber-crime revenue.”
