Cybercriminals develop new currencies
Posted by: Timothy Weaver on 02/17/2014 11:01 AM
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Ever since the Russian government cracked down on Bitcoins, fraudsters are using private currencies to conduct transactions with each other.
"Ever since the Liberty Reserve takedown in May of last year and the confiscation of all accounts by law enforcement, fraudsters have been busy finding a solid currency to which they can entrust their spoils without the risk of losing them in a bust," the researchers explain in a blog post.
"The obvious choices were Perfect Money and BitCoin, but both currencies carry inherent risk. Perfect Money is of questionable background, while BitCoin does not provide fraudsters the required level of anonymity and is not immune to seizure. These risks have pushed the underground to adopt - or really create - unique currency systems to help protect the financial security of its dwellers."
Some of the new found currencies include MUSD, first seen in November 2013, and United Payment System.
A third is UAPS, which is being referred to as the ‘First Commercial Bank’.
Researchers at RSA conclude:
Private financial systems and currencies in the Russian-language cybercrime community is a trend indicating a stronger level of collaboration, cooperation and sophistication amongst individual fraudsters and between fraudster boards in the cybercrime world.
These new internal currencies are carefully administered and secured, ensuring a high level of anonymity in transaction and hiding the user identities, making it more difficult for law enforcement to trace, block, or seize funds and accounts.
Michael Jackson, the former COO at Skype, and an expert in digital currencies, said that cybercrooks may be moving away from BitCoin because of its volatility.
"It is clear that criminals are often the first to exploit new technology, so it comes as no surprise that fraudsters are using underground forum-specific currencies as a system for value transfer. Indeed, e-gold and even less supervised mainstream products such as DMZ have been used as currency on botnets for a long time."
"Ever since the Liberty Reserve takedown in May of last year and the confiscation of all accounts by law enforcement, fraudsters have been busy finding a solid currency to which they can entrust their spoils without the risk of losing them in a bust," the researchers explain in a blog post.
"The obvious choices were Perfect Money and BitCoin, but both currencies carry inherent risk. Perfect Money is of questionable background, while BitCoin does not provide fraudsters the required level of anonymity and is not immune to seizure. These risks have pushed the underground to adopt - or really create - unique currency systems to help protect the financial security of its dwellers."
Some of the new found currencies include MUSD, first seen in November 2013, and United Payment System.
A third is UAPS, which is being referred to as the ‘First Commercial Bank’.
Researchers at RSA conclude:
Private financial systems and currencies in the Russian-language cybercrime community is a trend indicating a stronger level of collaboration, cooperation and sophistication amongst individual fraudsters and between fraudster boards in the cybercrime world.
These new internal currencies are carefully administered and secured, ensuring a high level of anonymity in transaction and hiding the user identities, making it more difficult for law enforcement to trace, block, or seize funds and accounts.
Michael Jackson, the former COO at Skype, and an expert in digital currencies, said that cybercrooks may be moving away from BitCoin because of its volatility.
"It is clear that criminals are often the first to exploit new technology, so it comes as no surprise that fraudsters are using underground forum-specific currencies as a system for value transfer. Indeed, e-gold and even less supervised mainstream products such as DMZ have been used as currency on botnets for a long time."
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