Bitcoin’s value has surpassed $50,000 for the first time in 2020 despite its extremely volatile market. With increasing trends and cryptocurrencies, the connection between cryptocurrencies and cyber thefts has grown and become stronger. In today’s time, ransomware attacks are becoming so common that they can take any company or business down in few minutes. Earlier, in ransomware attacks, people or victims were asked to send the PIN or password to attackers that provide them access to bank accounts or other accounts.
Undoubtedly, the traditional payment scheme was difficult to trace, but still, the investigators connected the dots and were able to find out the medium or cybercriminals. But the ransomware attacks were not that lucrative, and the scale of payments wasn’t too big. You can also secure your transactions through bitcoin champion. To make ransomware more profitable, some other methods of making payments were required.
How did cryptocurrencies work?
We have been introduced to digital money that is also known as cryptocurrencies. The development of cryptocurrencies has made cyber attacks easier and has given rise to more cyber attacks. The best thing about cryptocurrencies is their borderless transactions that don’t involve any intermediary like central authorities, and also, the value of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies aren’t set by banks. Independency of cryptocurrencies means cryptocurrencies are decentralized in nature, and another great feature of cryptocurrencies is that these are anonymous.
Cryptocurrencies are based on technologies that make cryptocurrencies highly secure which makes it impossible to counterfeit the cryptocurrency. It is a global currency that means it is accessible to people worldwide, and there are no delays, no hidden fees for making transactions.
Have retailers started accepting Bitcoin?
Out of all the cryptocurrencies that are developed to it, bitcoin is one of the most popular and widely accepted cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin uses blockchain technology that is a shared public ledger that records all the bitcoin transactions. The blockchain is a long chain of blocks, and the blocks consist of bitcoin transactions that miners verify through bitcoin mining. Bitcoin transactions are irreversible, inexpensive, and quick. Because bitcoin transactions are irreversible, which means losses once done can never be recovered, making it easy for fraudsters to hack bitcoins.
Bitcoin users must have digital wallets, also known as Bitcoin wallets, that store the bitcoin address, the public key, and private key. The popularity of bitcoin and its legitimacy and the unique features of bitcoin are noticed by retailers, making them accept bitcoin to expand their business. Bitcoin allows anonymous transactions, and this feature of bitcoin has attracted individuals involved in the dark web and do criminal activities like hacking and ransomware.
As cryptocurrencies aren’t regulated or governed by central authorities and no government involvement is investigating the illegal or fraudulent activities in currency. Due to the increased use of bitcoin, the FBI has seen tremendous growth in cybercriminal activities.
The increasing value of bitcoin attracts hackers.
With the increasing trend of bitcoin, cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming legal tender, and hackers are taking advantage of this for ransomware attacks. The skyrocketing value of bitcoin has become the main target of hackers, and they are using it to hack bitcoins. In the dark web, the illegal trade of weapons and drugs has been increased because no one can track bitcoin transactions as the bitcoin network is anonymous.
Bitcoin has become the first choice of people that deal in drugs and weapons on the dark web. It has been believed that bitcoin has become mainstream for scammers as they are using it for ransomware attacks. Many reports have been generated that show that ransomware attacks are attacking the private keys and even crypto exchanges used to store and trade cryptocurrencies. Many people who use bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are not aware that digital money is highly vulnerable to misdealing and hacking. This is providing cybercriminals the advantage of attacking their bitcoins.
Bitcoin & Phishing
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have gained the attraction of phishing attacks. Phishing emails are the most common form used by fraudsters to attack bitcoins by entering their keys. Once you have clicked on phishing mail, the fraudsters will get access to your private keys, and your wallet will be emptied.