The ransomware continues to pay off for cybercriminals, but less than before. This is in any case what emerges from the analyzes of Chainalysis.
According to the latest edition of Chainalysis’ Crypto Crime Report, ransomware cyberattacks have reported nearly 457 million dollars to cybercriminals, in 2022. This is a little more than 40% less than in 2021. These abuses had then brought in nearly 766 million dollars.
In a press release, Kim Grauer, research director at Chainalysis, points out that he does not see this as a sign of a decline in the aggressiveness of attackers: “the decline in cyber attacker income is not linked to a drop in the number of attacks but probably to the growing reluctance of victims to pay ransoms. This reluctance is the consequence of several factors, in particular the more widespread use of solutions making it possible to back up and/or recover one’s data and which mitigate the impact of attacks, but also the fear of violating government regulations prohibiting the payment of ransoms to organizations potentially affiliated with sanctioned countries and groups”.
In fact, particularly low ransom demands have been observed in 2022, with, for example, LockBit 3.0 franchise henchmen contenting themselves with demanding… $2,800, last September. The extravagances of a REvil asking Acer for $50 million, in the spring of 2021, seem far away. The watchword now seems to be to make sure you get paid, even if the amount obtained is relatively moderate.
Also, the amount stated by Chainalysis is in dollars, not bitcoin. And precisely, the value of the cryptocurrency preferred by cybercriminals (reluctantly, probably) fell considerably, on average over the year, in 2022, compared to 2021.
Bitcoin hit its all-time high in October 2021 at over $60,000. Since then, the price of this crypto-currency has oscillated, significantly downwards, and above all without returning to these levels, so far. What, also, help to explain the drop in the amounts of ransoms paid in dollars, in 2022.
If there is therefore no question of seeing in the conclusions of Chainalysis the signs of the end of cybercrime using cyber-extortion, it is at least appropriate to underline the importance and the effectiveness of the monitoring of financial flows linked to ransoms paid, both to measure the extent of the threat and its effectiveness.
And this also applies to that of the fight against cybercrime: the activity of the exchange platform Bitzlatohas just been interrupted by the police. Six people were questioned and more than 16 million euros in assets were seized in the process. The result of monitoring the flow of crypto-assets and the fight against their laundering.