U.S and Denmark Based Firm has been Getting Robbed off $1 Billion for Many Years by 2 Groups- ‘Alpha and Beta’
As per the reports obtained by Chainalysis (a blockchain analytics company), a U.S and Denmark based blockchain analytics firm has been getting robbed by 2 groups over the past few years. These two groups- Alpha and Beta have managed to rob off 1 billion dollars. The report from Chainalysis read as-
“The hackers typically move stolen funds through a complex array of wallets and exchanges in an attempt to disguise the funds’ criminal origins. The hackers then often observe a quiet period of 40 or more days in which they don’t move funds, waiting until interest in the theft has died down. Once they feel safe, they move quickly. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Chainalysis chief economist Philip Gradwell said that it is challenging even for major crypto exchanges with strict Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) policies in place to crack down on stolen funds hitting exchanges. Primarily due to the improvement in methods employed by hackers in disguising transactions, the researchers at Chainalysis emphasized that the only way to stop suspicious transactions from going through is for exchanges to cooperate with each other.”
The research from the Chainalysis also revealed that mutual support and cooperation between various crypto exchanges can help in preventing the crime from taking place. The report further added that “Neutral intermediaries between exchanges can play an important role in this effort.”
Looking at the transactions, these two hackers groups have stolen 90 million dollars as an average amount in each hack; which spread across several crypto markets.
Chainalysis has been supporting several big shots of crypto-based exchanges for preventing dubious transactions and therefore has been protecting the trading platforms. One such example is Binance (the world’s largest crypto-based exchange.) Last year in October, Binance partnered with Chainalysis in order to handle issues of money laundering.
Usually tracking transactions on big public blockchain networks is fairly possible, but still, hackers always are on a lookout for using unpredictable ways to break the codes and the origins of the transactions. In the hacking case of ‘Cryptopia’ (New Zealand based crypto exchange), the stolen funds were quickly frozen by Binance.
As per the recent research from Chainalysis, it gets challenging to catch dodgy transactions if the hackers involved are from sophisticated and criminally- patient minds such as of two groups. The research reports revealed that the two groups- ‘Alpha and Beta’ are quite a patient group of hackers. They usually wait for a good long time of at least 112 days. They use this time for the conversion and stealing of the funds in such a way that tracing the transactions becomes very tricky.
Another example of the sophistication of these hacking groups is the incidence when Beta opted to wait for almost ‘two years’ to launder the funds. This wait is the key for disappearing in the thin air. The beta group did this in order to wipe off any proof of involving the organization in the transaction.
