Seizing Illicit Proceeds of and Combating Ransomware Attacks

On June 7^th, the Justice Department seized much of the ransom that a major U.S. pipeline operator had paid last month to a Russian hacking collective.[1]  This resulted from investigators tracing more than 75 Bitcoins worth as the money moved through a “maze” of at least 23 different electronic accounts belonging to DarkSide, the hacking group.[2]  Darkside operated by providing the ransomware to its affiliates and in exchange, Darkside received a cut of the affiliate’s profits.[3]  This is not the first ransomware attack, as several have been conducted before.  Questions are being raised as to how will U.S. law enforcement, in cooperation with private forensic investigators, trace and seize the money?  In addition, more issues lie with criminals using the “Dark Web” as a turnkey to franchise their operation and benefit from the lack of international enforcement, since the hackers are outside of the United States and the unwillingness of some countries, such as Russia, who would rather collaborate and cooperating with the hackers themselves.  This article will explore these proceeding topics and will raise potential issues that may arise in the future.