ARTICLE
26 May 2021

Reports Cover Pipeline Ransomware, Crypto Schemes And DeFi Hacks

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BakerHostetler

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Recognized as one of the top firms for client service, BakerHostetler is a leading national law firm that helps clients around the world address their most complex and critical business and regulatory issues. With five core national practice groups — Business, Labor and Employment, Intellectual Property, Litigation, and Tax — the firm has more than 970 lawyers located in 14 offices coast to coast. BakerHostetler is widely regarded as having one of the country’s top 10 tax practices, a nationally recognized litigation practice, an award-winning data privacy practice and an industry-leading business practice. The firm is also recognized internationally for its groundbreaking work recovering more than $13 billion in the Madoff Recovery Initiative, representing the SIPA Trustee for the liquidation of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC. Visit bakerlaw.com
After a six-day outage, Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid almost $5 million in bitcoin to Eastern European hackers to restore functionality to the largest pipeline in the U.S., according to reports.
United States Technology

After a six-day outage, Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid almost $5 million in bitcoin to Eastern European hackers to restore functionality to the largest pipeline in the U.S., according to reports. Analysts have traced the bitcoin wallet used by the hackers to one owned by the DarkSide ransomware affiliate, which announced it would be ending operations after its servers were seized and its cryptocurrency was drained.

Eleven individuals were arrested in Europe on May 11 for their links to a criminal network involved in investment fraud, money laundering and a trading scheme resulting in almost ?30 million in losses. According to a press release, the criminal network created different fraudulent trading platforms advertising substantial profits from cryptocurrencies.

This week, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) issued a warning concerning a fraud scheme in which consumers have been receiving fictitious email messages, alleging to be initiated by the OCC or senior officials of the agency, regarding funds purportedly under the control of the OCC. The scheme reportedly involves requests for users to provide bitcoin wallet addresses for a purported transfer of funds.

Meanwhile, although crypto hacks and thefts are bringing smaller amounts of money to illicit actors this year, a new report shows an alarming trend in DeFi hacks. According to the report, while DeFi hacks made up approximately 25 percent of total hack and theft volume in 2020, they now make up more than 60 percent of the total volume. The report also notes that, at $156 million, the amount taken from DeFi-related hacks in the first five months of 2021 already surpasses the $129 million stolen in DeFi-related hacks throughout all of 2020.

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