Crypto-related theft and fraud are likely to surge in the post-COVID 19 space, suggests a new report by cybersecurity and antivirus provider Kaspersky Lab.
Securelist, Kaspersky’s cyberthreat research segment, posted a report on cyberthreats to financial firms, predicting some particular types of financial attacks that are likely to increase next year.
Securelist has forecasted that a wave of poverty driven by the COVID-19 crisis will no doubt result in “more people resorting to crime including cybercrime.” That could additionally imply an increase in crimes related to Bitcoin.
As per Securelist, Bitcoin (BTC) is likely to be the most appealing digital asset for cybercrime due to its high popularity. The report states:
“We might see certain economies crashing and local currencies plummeting, which would make Bitcoin theft a lot more attractive. We should expect more fraud, targeting mostly BTC, due to this cryptocurrency being the most popular one.”
In addition, Kaspersky’s research arm said that online criminals could switch to more privacy-focused digital assets such as Monero (XMR). According to Securelist, this shift would happen because of the increasing “technical capabilities of monitoring, deanonymization and seizing of BTC.”
The report continues:
“We should expect cybercriminals to switch to transit cryptocurrencies for charging victims. There is a reason to believe they might switch to other privacy-enhanced currencies, such as Monero, to use these first as a transition currency and then convert the funds to any other cryptocurrency of choice including BTC.”
Cointelegraph previously reported that cryptocurrency-related crimes reduced significantly this year, although some crypto segments, such as decentralized finance, have become fresh hotbeds for crimincal activity.
As per another report by virtual private network company Atlas VPN, blockchain- and cryptocurrency-related hacks are likely to continue dropping in 2021.
Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/bitcoin-theft-is-likely-to-surge-in-meager-post-covid-economy-report