United States Department Of Justice Seizes Assets Worth $500,000 From Netwalker

The dangers posed by the looming crypto scams, hacks, and vices of the cryptocurrency space have continued to increase, drawing attention from several law enforcement agencies of several nations. The rapid growth of the cryptocurrency industry could be hampered if news like this continues to rise, analyst predicts.

However, in a new report gathered yesterday, the U.S. Department of Justice has now seized digital assets worth more than $450,000 from Netwalker, a ransomware developed by Circus Spider in 2009. The victims of the ransomware operator who were uncovered by the F.B.I. were said to be hospitals.

Urinalysis partnered with the F.B.I. to uncover the attackers

The face of the new successful investigation might be the F.B.I., who is well known to be at the front run of investigations of such nature. However, the report also credits crypto data protection and governance firm, Chainalysis. They had also provided the F.B.I. and the United States Department Of Justice with all the necessary information it needed to uncover the perpetrators.

The information that led to the arrest of the Canadian born Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a partner of the Netwalker network, was also provided to the F.B.I. by Urinalysis. The Canadian hacker whose arrest was carried out in Bulgaria and whose assets were seized have been reported to have gotten at least $20 million in ransomware attacks in the past.

The nature of the business of Netwalker has been called into question by all, including Urinalysis. The ransomware industry believes that the affiliates who use a portion of the network use it for malicious purposes to extort funds illegally from their victims. The F.B.I. claims that it cannot ascertain to any extent the amount of illegal proceeds that had been generated from the Netwalker ransomware.

Netwalker remains questionable

This is not the first time that Netwalker has been questioned, as the F.B.I. had initially labeled them a threat to hospitals back then in 2020. The increased cases of Ransomeware attacks are now the order of the day.

A factor attributed to this cause is that the inquisitive nature of people regarding news on COVID-19 had led to individuals sorting out information online and hereby clicking on malicious links. The growing cases have also attracted the attention of several law enforcement agencies like F.B.I., who have now been forced to pay keen attention to the concerns of individuals involved.

The F.B.I. who uncovered a report last year informed the public that at least $140 million worth of Bitcoin had been stolen by cybercriminals in barely seven years and will still be tasked with the responsibilities of uncovering such in the future. However, there is a need to curb the cyber attacks in the cryptocurrency space, which may become a sting in its roots, despite its success.

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