Altcoins Talks - Cryptocurrency Forum

Marketplace => Marketplace & Bitcoin Services => Topic started by: Zed0X on January 25, 2020, 07:32:09 AM

Title: Hackers and their use of mixing services
Post by: Zed0X on January 25, 2020, 07:32:09 AM

Chainalysis released an article a few days ago entitled As Exchanges Beef Up Security Measures, Hackers Get More Sophisticated (https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/cryptocurrency-exchange-hacks-2019). It's pretty obvious for me that hackers will adapt to whatever security upgrades these exchanges will have but what really got me interested is how the hacked coins are being spent/sold/liquidated.

Chainalysis claims that a group of hackers are now using coin mixing/coinjoin services in 2019 compared to the previous years. We can also notice that they've stopped using centralized crypto exchanges and that is probably due to way these exchanges are coordinating faster now to block/freeze funds from hackers' wallets. (refer to image below)

(https://assets.website-files.com/5a95e929b010650001bae4c6/5e26153cadcd875d774ed2a3_54s0R8nhKRKdHatarRcC2pU47WHqF5lpj-oFO6IxOqHntfZ0we8FgXGxl9t0CZvcG5Ex_r7DF4903sBuH7T1vSNovvDT66_8LzljJonXO4RzDY4vH5FEVYuunEBR2FCQLai518Zy.png)

We know that it's the exchange fault for getting hacked but it still kinda sucks to think that the services that are meant to increase our privacy & anonymity are also aiding these hackers (and also money launderers). The fact that developers are trying to improve mixing methods and that more and more mixing services are coming out also gives hackers more options.

When you come to think of it, nothing also stops hackers from creating their own mixing methods. They have the resources and I would not doubt if they have the skills. Maybe there's already one under development, who knows?

(Disclaimer: I've already posted a similar topic in another forum)