The lack of regulation and difficulty in tracing transactions have made it challenging for law enforcement to effectively investigate and prosecute cryptocurrency-related crimes.
Yet, according to Andy Greenberg recent book “Tracers in the Dark: The Global Hunt for the Crime Lords of Cryptocurrency”, this might be changing.
Andy Greenberg chronicles the efforts of law enforcement agencies and cybersecurity experts to track and apprehend individuals who use cryptocurrency for illegal activities.
The book covers several high-profile cases of cryptocurrency-related crime, including the arrest of Ross Ulbricht, the Silk Road darknet market operator, and the capture of Alexandre Cazes, the creator of the AlphaBay darknet market. It also discusses the use of techniques such as blockchain analysis and malware tracking to identify and locate suspects.
Other examples of caught criminals mentioned in the book include:
· Oleg Pliss, a hacker who stole the login credentials of over 400,000 Apple iCloud accounts and demanded a ransom in Bitcoin
· Roman Seleznev, a Russian hacker convicted of stealing and selling credit card numbers on the darknet
· Pavel Vrublevsky, a Russian cybercriminal convicted of hiring a DDoS attack against a rival company
The book also covers the challenges law enforcement agencies face in investigating and prosecuting cryptocurrency-related crimes, including the difficulty of tracing transactions on the blockchain and the jurisdictional issues that can arise when suspects are located in different countries.
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