A report unveiled by the U.S. Army reveals that North Korea now has more than 6,000 hackers stationed in countries such as Belarus, China, India, Malaysia, Russia, among others. The operations of four sub divisions are overseen by Bureau 121, the cyber warfare guidance unit of the hermit nation. The report, named North Korean Tactics, suggests the hackers do not exclusively launch cyberattacks from North Korea itself, as the country lacks the IT infrastructure to deploy the massive campaigns. Financial crimes division The “financial crime division” called the Bluenoroff Group has around 1,700 members and is dedicated to crypto crimes …

Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, is collaborating with law enforcement authorities in Ukraine to take down some large-scale money laundering schemes. Working with the exchange, Ukraine’s cyber police identified and arrested a group of criminals involved in a $42 million ransomware and money laundering operation, Binance told Cointelegraph in a criminal investigation report on Aug. 18. According to the report, the criminal group has been laundering millions of dollars in cryptocurrencies since 2018. A Binance representative said that the suspects were all Ukranian nationals, and were arrested in June 2020. According to Binance, the group was primarily operating in …

Cybersecurity researchers have detected what they believe to be the first ever stealth crypto mining campaign to steal Amazon Web Services (AWS) credentials. The mining campaign was described as being relatively unsophisticated by Cado Security in their report on Aug. 17. In total, it seems so far to have only resulted in the attackers — who operate under the name TeamTNT — pocketing a paltry $300 in illicit profits. What struck the researchers’ attention was the crypto-mining worm’s specific functionality for stealing AWS credentials. Cado Security understands this as part of a wider trend, showing that hackers and attackers are …

A U.K. woman has been arrested in possession of £115,000 ($150,000) of Bitcoin (BTC), according to a Metropolitan Police report. The cryptocurrency is alleged to be the proceeds of a fraudulent scheme applying for government loans designed to assist small businesses in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The 35-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of fraud, money laundering and child neglect, following the search of a residential address in Ipswich, United Kingdom on Aug 12. Officers successfully applied for the detention of the Bitcoin held in the suspect’s cryptocurrency wallet on Aug 13. The investigation leading to the arrest …

Malaysian police arrested four cryptocurrency mining operators after discovering that they were stealing electricity from the state-owned power firm, Sarawak Energy Berhad, or SEB. According to Malay Mail, authorities spent two days cracking down on four shophouses, believed to be housing cryptocurrency mining centers. The shophouses were located in the cities of Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaidi Adruce, Jalan Pahlawan and Jalan Tunku Abdul Rahman. According to the investigation, the thieves stole over $59,000 per month from the power company. The Electrical Inspectorate Unit, or EIU, from the Sarawak Ministry of Utilities, also participated in the operation. They provided additional details …

A resident from Lincolnshire, United Kingdom, was accused by local authorities of attempting to blackmail the supermarket chain, Tesco. According to The Yorkshire Post, Nigel Wright, a sheep farmer, allegedly wrote Tesco a series of letters claiming that he had planted contaminated baby food in their supermarket stores. He then allegedly offered to reveal the locations of the contaminated baby food in exchange for roughly $1.8 million in BTC. Wright is believed to have been a part of a group of disgruntled farmers who felt that the grocery chain had underpaid them for previous goods. No information about other members …

A major financial watchdog in Russia is developing a new cryptocurrency analytics tool to trace major cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC) and privacy coins. Russia’s Federal Financial Monitoring Service, a federal service combating money laundering and terrorist financing, is reportedly planning to build a new analytics platform for tracking cryptocurrency transactions via artificial intelligence. Dubbed “Transparent Blockchain,” the new system is designed to track the movement of digital financial assets and identify crypto service providers to fight illicit activity related to digital assets, local news agency RBC reported on Aug. 10. According to the report, the new system is able to …

A judge has sentenced Australian citizen Kathryn Nguyen to a maximum time of 2 years and 3 months in prison for her role in stealing more than 100,000 XRP tokens in January 2018. According to an Aug. 11 report in Australian publication Information Age, Nguyen was sentenced over the theft of more than $300,000 in XRP two years ago. She was initially charged in Oct. 2018 and pled guilty to fraud charges the following August. Chris Craigie, the judge presiding over Nguyen’s case, said it was a “difficult and troubling decision” to send her to prison. The Australian national will …

Protests have erupted in Belarus following the re-election of the country’s authoritarian president Alexander Lukashenko, who reportedly won against opposition candidate Svetlana Tikhanovskaya in a landslide victory with more than 80% of the vote on Aug. 9. But officials both inside and outside of Belarus are condemning the election results as falsified. The notorious Belorussian president has filled his role since 1994, but he has most recently made a number of statements in favor of blockchain technology. Lukashenko legalized cryptocurrency and ICOs in Dec. 2017. In an April 2019 video of Lukashenko addressing a crowd, he proposed using excess energy …

The mayor of Loudi, a city in China’s Hunan province, has characterized blockchain technology as a powerful “weapon” that can effectively tackle crime. At a meeting of Loudi’s Municipal Public Security Bureau on Aug. 10, Mayor Yang Yiwen responded to reports on the progress of a trial blockchain project that is currently being conducted by the bureau and a local technology firm. The project combines blockchain technology with multi-party computing and big data to improve trusted data exchange and information traceability across a collaborative network. This network unites telecommunication network operators, banks and public data from various municipal departments, such …

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority, or PFSA, issued a warning on the surge of scammers offering fake crypto investment opportunities, which they claim to be the only authorized investment fund in Poland. The scammers call potential victims by asking them to sell or buy cryptocurrencies through the fake fund, but first, they should send the cryptos to the PFSA compliance team’s wallet to verify the legality of the transactions and then, the regulator clears the payment to be deposited in the unexistent fund. The watchdog has been aggressive towards crypto in the past few years and added the following reminder …

Konstantin Ignatov, a major figure behind OneCoin cryptocurrency exit scam, was dismissed from a civil class action brought by OneCoin victims. According to an Aug. 7 report by Finance Magnates, OneCoin investors have agreed for a settlement with Ignatov. In a court filing on Aug. 6, plaintiffs Donald Berdeaux and Christine Grablis agreed to discontinue the claims asserted against Ignatov. Still facing up to 90 years in jail in a legal action brought by the United States’ Department of Justice (DOJ), Ignatov is apparently no longer one of the key figures in a civil case, which is related to financial …