Cybercriminals are now clashing.
When it comes to creating new ways to steal, criminals never run out of ideas. This spring, your cryptocurrencies will be the target of a new type of attack in the City of London.
The cybercriminals are currently fighting, according to various police papers obtained exclusively by the British publication The Guardian. Several victims had their mobile phones taken before realising that the crooks had stolen large quantities of money from their cryptocurrency wallets using this method.
A half-physical, half-virtual attack
For example, one victim was assaulted while holding her smartphone to get an Uber. The intruders seized his phone and eventually returned it, but only after taking 5,000 pounds sterling (5,900 euros) in digital currency Ethereum via the Coinbase website (online digital currency wallet and platform cryptocurrency exchange).
A group of people approached another victim and offered to sell him cocaine. He consented to follow them into a narrow alley, where he was shoved against a wall and forced to unlock his smartphone using face recognition. The fraudsters gained access and moved 6,000 pounds (7,000 euros) of ripple virtual currency from his account to theirs.
Some cryptocurrency investors have already been plundered of up to 30,000 pounds (35,000 euros) as a result of this new sort of combined physical and cyber violence.
If I'm robbed and forced to make a wire transfer, the bank can track where the money went and there are several options for reversing the transaction. However, once money is transferred from one bitcoin wallet to another, there is no turning back," says David Gerard, author of Attack on the 50 Foot Blockchain. Thieves are overmotivated by the crime's irreversibility.
Given the nature of cryptocurrencies, and the fact that transactions are recorded and cannot be changed on the blockchain, it is theoretically feasible to track down the stolen money. The police usually do this job for huge quantities of money (several million), but it is more difficult to put up these methods for a significant number of small thefts.
Furthermore, the possibility of crypto-mugging ("violence" in French) is heightened since virtual money is managed differently than actual money. "You wouldn't be wandering down the street with a bundle of 50-pound bills in your hand. The same rationale should apply to crypto assets "Phil Ariss, director of the National Police Cybercrime Program's Cryptocurrency Team, concludes.