Hackers and scammers have begun to see the crypto industry as a valuable stage, as the number of crypto-related violations is clearly on the surge. A recent bust by the United States has put a stop to an array of hacks.
Hackers Eye Crypto Mining Rewards
The United States Department of Justice recently shared an announcement highlighting charges on seven individuals for carrying out hacks on over 100 companies across the globe. The US officials suggested that the alleged criminals included two businessmen from Malaysia and five residents from China. The statement revealed that the hackers operated under the labels, “APT41,” “Barium,” “Winnti,” “Wicked Panda,” and “Wicked Spider.”
The hackers engaged in several illicit activities like theft of source code, software code signing certificates, customer account data, and valuable business information. Along with this, the alleged criminals went on to employ crypto-jacking schemes where they mined cryptocurrencies via victim computers. Over the years, the crypto mining industry has attracted a lot of interest from individuals, thanks to miner rewards. People stealing electricity or software to aid their mining process has caused a huge ruckus across the globe.
Speaking about the latest incident, the Deputy Attorney General, Jeffrey A. Rosen suggested that the officials were looking into disordering the interventions of the cybercriminals. He added,
“Regrettably, the Chinese communist party has chosen a different path of making China safe for cybercriminals so long as they attack computers outside China and steal intellectual property helpful to China.”
The statement further revealed that the hackers had targeted software development companies, video gaming platforms, computer manufacturers, nonprofit platforms, think-tanks, telecommunication firms along with governments as well as politicians. The hackers not only focused on the United States but also steered into Australia, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore, Brazil, Chile, Hong Kong, and India.
The five Chinese men charged by the US officials were identified as Tan Dailin, Jiang Lizhi, Qian Chuan, Fu Qiang, and Zhang Haoran. The Malaysian businessmen were Ling Yang Ching and Wong Ong Hua. All the aforementioned individuals were aged between 32 to 46.