Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

The U.S. Department of Justice recently charged six defendants in four separate crypto-related fraud cases:

• the largest known #NFT scheme charged to date;
• a global #Ponzi scheme involving unregistered securities;
• a fraudulent #ICO; and
• a fraudulent investment fund.

Like prior #GGP updates, these cases reflect the herculean efforts of coordinated #lawenforcement and #digitalforensic efforts. Kudos to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the United States Attorneys’​ Offices, the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General.

If you believe that you are a victim of the Baller Ape Club, EmpiresX, TBIS, and Circle Society schemes, please visit the DOJ website for details on how to submit your “Victim Impact Statement” (and thereby register as a victim).

#ruleoflaw #fraudinvestigations #cybercrime #cryptoassets #digitalassettracing #digitalassetrecovery #forensicinvestigation #forensicaccounting #karma #AisA #digitalassets

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday that it has shut down (i.e., seized and taken control of the domains governing) several websites serving as both #DDoS attacks and as indexed search engines for breached personal information.

In the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announcement, the WeLeakInfo[.]to website was specifically referenced. For those who are unaware, this site contained roughly 7 billion indexed records of personal information illegally obtained from over 10,000 #databreaches. This is a 𝐁𝐈𝐆 𝐃𝐄𝐀𝐋.

Kudos to all involved: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Police Corps of the Netherlands, and the Federal Police of Belgium.

justice #karma #ruleoflaw #digitalforensics #forensicinvestigation #lawenforcement #cybercrime #databreach #cyberforensics #police

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

I know that there are many events unfolding in recent weeks with far more gravitas than the link below might indicate. That said, I share today’s update because it’s a testament to the depths that the second-handers of the world will sink to meddle in something designed to be life-affirming — and the importance of resisting such meddling.

For those who don’t know, #EuroVision is an international songwriting competition organized annually by the European Broadcasting Union, featuring participants primarily from European countries. Italian police foiled a series of cyberattacks by a pro-Russian hacking group called “Killnet”. The Killnet attacks were designed to skew the results of this year’s competition, but both the #DDoS and voting-manipulation attacks were unsuccessful.

In case you haven’t heard, the #EuroVision2022 winner was Ukraine.

#AisA #ruleoflaw #digitalforensics #lawenforcement #justice #karma #cybercrime #forensicinvestigation #databreach

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

While the use of the verb “forfeit” in the headline of this story may seem confusing, it’s a GREAT turn of events. Simply put, U.S. Department of Justice, Criminal Division prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida have secured one of the largest #cryptocurrency #forfeiture actions ever filed in this country.

This story really resonates with me, as it represents a rather elegant intersection of #cyber and #crypto. The forfeiture action netted about $34M in cryptocurrency, all tied to the illegal #darkweb activity of a South Florida resident — specifically, the sale of online account credentials.

Of additional interest is the method by which this case was brought. In yet another example of inter-agency collaboration among federal, state, and local #lawenforcement, the investigators “followed the money” through a tortuous path, owing to the target’s use of cryptocurrency “tumblers”, “chain hopping”, and other (failed) #moneylaundering techniques.

Kudos to the Internal Revenue Service‘s Criminal Investigation group, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the United States Postal Service Inspection Service, and the Drug Enforcement Administration for its combined investigative efforts here.

#ruleoflaw #digitalforensics #digitalassets #assettracing #assetrecovery #forensicinvestigation #justice #karma #AisA

A #ForensicUpdate with Insurance Broker McGriff…

I was thrilled to join my colleague, Lisa Frist, on a recent podcast discussing #cyberforensics and #lessonslearned from #cyberinvestigations. It’s (mercifully) brief, so please give it a listen.

#databreach #espionage #digitalforensics #investigations #cyberinsurance #cybersecurity #cyberrisk #riskmanagement

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update: The U.S. Department of Justice announced yesterday that last week it seized $3.6B USD in #bitcoin stolen from the Bitfinex platform in 2016. As with many of these prominent fraud cases, there is much to un-pack here — ranging from remarkably diligent investigative work to complex #digitalforensics to the effective deployment of the prosecutor’s “gatekeeper liability” playbook.

This story is only now coming to light, but what seems clear to me is that this investigation will inform future prosecutions for years to come. The accused employed numerous sophisticated techniques to attempt to launder these funds, but the investigative team nonetheless was able to use Bitcoin’s public #distributedledger to trace these assets and to achieve this recovery.

Another interesting point related to this prosecution is the valuation component. While this marks the largest financial seizure in DoJ history, it’s fascinating to note that the #assetvalue at the time of the theft (2016) was around $70M USD.

#justice #digitalassettracing #digitalassetrecovery #crypto #cryptocurrency #satoshi #distributedledger #forensicanalytics #datascience #assettracing #assettracking #assetrecovery

Panel Presentation: Cyber Threats & Trends…

I’m looking forward to joining a panel discussion on #Cyber Trends & Threats at the Washington Society of CPAs annual #SparkConference.

#cybersecurity #threatintelligence #incidentresponse #digitalforensics #forensicinvestigation #databreaches #ransomware #cyberriskmanagement #resilience

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

This one is a sequel to the wonderful news reported last week (whereby the Russian-based #REvil gang was forced offline) … there have now been arrests related to same!

Last week’s reporting, about a multi-national #lawenforcement operation taking REvil offline, can now be updated to include the arrests of two individuals. This brings the number of Sodinokibi / REvil / GandCrab arrests (all variations of the same odious theme) to seven individuals since February 2021.

These individuals are believed to be responsible for over 7,000 deployments of this complex and devastating ransomware, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in extortion revenue. To call this a multi-national effort is to understate things quite a bit; the countries involved in the take-down and related arrests include: Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Norway, Philippines, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Kuwait, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

These efforts, in combination with new initiatives from the international law-enforcement community are most welcome developments. A great example of the changing nature of this ransomware game can be found in the U.S. Department of State‘s recent announcement of a $10M “bounty” for information leading to the arrest of those involved with the #Darkside#ransomware activities (q.v., https://lnkd.in/dkxAXXAH)

cybersecurity #hacking #cyberdefense #cyberwarfare #digitalforensics #dfir #databreach #karma #justice #cyber

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

As a devotee of #cryptocurrency and its enabling technology (#blockchain), I’m frustrated by the bad actors in this space that give the impression that this technology is unsafe and/or unstable. Accordingly, I welcome news like today’s, wherein two #fraudsters were convicted of defrauding around 13,000 individual investors in a rather traditional fraud scheme — albeit in a cryptocurrency arena.

Kudos to the U.S. Department of Justice and the investigative team at the Internal Revenue Service for securing these convictions, each of which follows closely on the heels of a civil settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC’s civil settlement secured over $8M USD in penalties and fines, and both men now face up to five years in federal prison from their guilty pleas in the criminal proceeding.

#digitalcurrency #assettracing #digitalforensics #investigations #cryptoassets #cryptonews #forensics #forensicinvestigation

Today’s #GoodGuysPrevail Update…

This is a big one…likely the largest #cryptocurrency #fraud scheme ever criminally charged. Earlier this week, the U.S. Department of Justice secured the conviction of one of the architects of the #BitConnect “platform”, a #ponzischeme that defrauded thousands of worldwide investors of over $2 billion USD.

Kudos to the multi-jurisdictional #investigative effort that involved the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service, and #lawenforcement partners in India, Slovenia, and several other jurisdictions around the world.

In related news, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced a parallel action against this same actor (and three of his co-conspirators), including civil charges connected with the same conduct.

#digitalcurrency #blockchain #securitieslaw #digitalforensics #cryptocurrencies