A recent case involving an international scam that posted fake auctions online and laundered money hit a huge milestone last week, with fifteen people involved in the case entering guilty pleas for their association with the scam. According to experts, the case could be useful as a template for nation-state actors who are considering using cryptocurrency exchanges to cover their tracks in the future. The Justice Department stated that the use of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin makes it harder to track down cybercriminals.
However, cryptocurrency exchanges have encoded transactions that hide the identity of those involved with the exchange. These codes are permanently and publicly recorded across a large number of computers, allowing law enforcement to study them and identify patterns that lead to suspects’ identities.
