While the world breathes a sigh of relief witnessing a substantial 77% decline in crypto scams, which dropped from $3.3 billion to $1.1 billion in the first half of 2023, as reported by Chainalysis, a more ominous threat looms in the horizon. Ransom attacks are making a considerable comeback, with perpetrators securing 62.4% more revenue than the first six months of 2022.
Posing as a central concern to individuals and corporations around the globe, ransomware assaulters are supposedly targeting large-scale organizations with deep pockets to extract the most money possible. Chainalysis paints a picture of a steep drop in funds flowing into well-known illegitimate entities by 65% and to risky entities, including cryptocurrency mixers and high-risk exchanges, by 42% within the first six months of 2023.
A glimmer of hope in Chainalysis’s report hints towards an increasing level of awareness among past victims, who become more careful and scrupulous about their investment decisions. Such a cautious approach towards cryptocurrency investments, inspired by government, industry awareness campaigns, and media reporting, is potentially a factor contributing towards the fall in scam revenue.
However, concerns about artificial intelligence are surfacing, with the increasing prominence of romance and pig butchering scams, and deepfakes. It simply suggests an alarming possibility of AI intensifying the effectiveness and scale of scams.
A decline in hacks by $1.1 billion has been noted from the first six months of 2022, Yet a staggering 62.4% increase in ransomware revenue to $449.1 million is witnessed in the first half of 2023. According to Chainalysis, this is the result of a newfound focus of ransom attackers who are targeting corporations with deep pockets. Cumulative flows for ransomware revenue are predicted to be on the path towards their second-biggest year ever, falling short of 2021’s full-year figure by just 4.6%.
With large corporations as their primary targets, ransom attackers now aim to extract the maximum amount of money possible. This increase in attack-mentality correlates to the evolution of cybersecurity and the implementation of newer laws that impose stricter sanctions against paying ransoms. The same data reveals a notable increase in payment sizes extracted by the largest perpetrators. The future of blockchain security thus hangs in the balance, teetering between resilience offered by heightened awareness and the emerging challenges posed by sophisticated ransom attacks.
Source: Cointelegraph
