The post 2024 Crypto Crime Report: North Korea’s Heists, Malware, and New Regulations appeared first on Coinpedia Fintech News
Especially in the year 2024, the global regulators took the motives to shut the fraudsters and money laundering in the cryptocurrency market to another level. Among those, we can mention the European Union, the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation, and the United States, the stablecoin legislation. Such measures are intended to combat crypto scams and similar fraud, which cost the industry over $2.3 billion.
Governments from various countries are seeking to coordinate policies to create harmonized regulatory frameworks that will foster innovation while at the same time addressing such issues as consumer protection and AML.
North Korea’s crypto heists reach alarming level
Cybercriminals from North Korea especially the Lazarus were blamed for several cyber and frauds involving hundreds of millions of dollars. One more example is a phishing campaign that took place back in April and attacked the blockchain and angel investing groups on the Telegram app.
Cybercriminals imitated big-name companies, set fake appointments and shared malware disguised as a tech-support scam. North Korean IT operatives also mislead blockchain firms considering them fake professionals with fake documents thus enabling them to penetrate deeper enabling bigger attacks on the crypto platforms.
Malware threats and rising perils
A new version of BeaRAT malware appeared in 2024; it affects macOS users and spreads via an application designed as a fake video call application. This malware was designed to have capabilities of the former together with stealing details as wallet information of cryptocurrencies. Such advanced threats as putting $55.48 million into a single cyber heist in 2024 proved the necessity of effective anti-cyber attack tools.
The fight against money laundering
Ethereum, Bitcoin and TRON remained the most utilized cryptocurrencies for money laundering. It was seen that by 2024, Tornado Cash handled $1.455 billion being withdrawn, a 53% YoY boost, and eXch’s deposit boomed by 355% because of its non-disclosure to law enforcement.
Railgun implemented brand new approaches, which provided fundamental proof of funds’ authenticity without violating users’ anonymity, which can be seen as a step forward in AML measures.