To solve crime, the old saying still holds: “Follow the money.” But how do you do that for cybercrimes when the money itself is decentralized and anonymous—as is the case with cryptocurrency? In today’s threat environment, it’s becoming increasingly crucial for enterprises to boost their cybersecurity maturity. Over a decade ago, Silk Road—widely regarded as the first darknet market—launched to anonymously connect buyers and sellers of illegal drugs. Silk Road used a Tor network to protect user privacy, with Bitcoin cryptocurrency and dark wallets to encrypt and mask transactions. Its success, and the challenges it posed for law enforcement, put the need for preventing cyber crime that uses cryptocurrency on the map. Many other darknet markets have emerged since then and the value of cryptocurrency has exploded, even with recent and well-publicized corrections. In February 2011, when Silk Road launched, a single Bitcoin was worth less than US $1. Ten years later, Bitcoin reached an all-time high of more than US $68,000. Even though it has dropped since, the value of a Bitcoin was still sitting at just under US $23,000 in June 2022.
Read more : Preventing Cryptocurrency Cyber Extortion.
