Blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace put forward its report on the rise of the privacy-focused cryptocurrencies such as Monero are playing in the rising tide of ransomware. “Current Trends in Ransomware” comes during 2021 but the report was released this week only. There was 500% Growth of “double extortion” ransomware attacks from 2020 to 2021 as per the report. These are the cyber attacks in which victim personal data is stolen by malicious actors in addition to encrypting it.
The Monero blockchain, a privacy-based cryptocurrency, will enhance its protocol and will not result in dividing and creation of a new coin. As attackers are preferring Monero for the ransom payment as Monero is a privacy-based cryptocurrency which uses the technology such as mixers, ring signatures, and stealth addresses which confuses the users to understand the sending and receiving wallets.
The survey evokes similar results from the analytics firm Chainalysis, which noted that total ransomware crypto payments surpassed $600 million during the period.
The study shows that last year there was a growing demand for ransom payment in Monero (XMR), with attackers charging insurance payments made in Bitcoin (BTC) ranging from 10 to 20%. As per the report attackers only take XMR payments and at least seven of the attackers take both Bitcoin and Monero from 22 ransomware strains.
Last year in October Everest Group, a Russian-speaking ransomware gang, asserted to have attacked the U.S. Government. Everest Ransomware is “currently attempting to sell the data for $500,000 in XMR,” as per the CipherTrace.
In 2020 a Group named REvil ransomware group also started demanding payments in XMR instead of Bitcoin.
As a result Monero and other Privacy-Based cryptocurrencies such as Dash and Zcash have been removed from the list by some exchanges in countries such as the U.K. and Japan.
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