The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) has released two new financial guides for businesses to detect and prevent criminal abuse of digital currencies and ransomware.
Each guide provides practical recommendation to assist businesses detect if a payment is related to a ransomware assault, or if someone is exploiting digital currencies and blockchain technology to commit crimes such as tax evasion, terror financing, scams or money laundering.
The guideline implored businesses to be on the lookout for users who tried to obfuscate the trail of their digital assets transactions by using mixers, privacy assets, and decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms suspiciously.
Among the particular indicators, Austrac recommends being careful when figuring out if somebody is using digital currencies for terrorism financing, for example, is when transactions to crowdfunding or online fundraising campaigns are linked to ideologically or religiously motivated violent extremism centered boards, or when a buyer account receives a number of small deposits, that are instantly transferred to private wallets.
In the meantime, some indicators of identifying when an individual is a sufferer of a ransomware assault, according to Austrac, include when a customer increases the limit on their account after which rapidly sends funds to a third party; following a preliminary giant digital currency transfer, a customer has little or no additional digital forex exercise; and when a newly onboarded customer desires to make a direct and huge buy of digital currency, followed by a direct withdrawal to an exterior digital currency address.
"Financial service providers need to be alert to the signs of criminal use of digital currencies, including their use in ransomware attacks," Austrac CEO Nicole Rose said in a statement.
The guides have been released in response to the increase in cyber threats to Australia. In 2020-21, 500 ransomware attacks were reported, marking a 15% increase from the previous fiscal year, analysts at Austrac noted.
Earlier this month, IDCare reported that over 5,000 customer details of former cryptocurrency exchange Alpha were exposed online. The details included the driver's license, passport, proof of age, and national identity card images of 232 Australians and 24 New Zealanders.
IDCare initially discovered the breach in late January when it noticed a post for sale on a Chinese-speaking platform for $150, before it was eventually posted to be accessed without spending a dime on another online forum called Breached.
"This event poses a serious risk to the identities of any involved. Due to the nature of the identity documents discovered, we urge anyone who had any dealings with AlphaEx to contact us," IDCare said.
