Digital intelligence firm Cellebrite has launched its own “Cellebrite Crypto Tracer” solution powered by CipherTrace.
The new offering aims to trace illicit cryptocurrencies such as:
money laundering
terrorism
drugs
human trafficking
weapon sales
ransomware schemes
The suite of tools will be available to investigators, analysts and non-technical agents who want to lawfully obtain evidence and trace criminals who use cryptocurrencies through the darknet.
Cellebrite Adds Cryptocurrency & Blockchain Investigations Solution, powered by CipherTrace, to Industry-Leading Digital Intelligence Platformhttps://t.co/1M869Tv20G pic.twitter.com/ezRx3lSwJM — CipherTrace (@ciphertrace) July 28, 2020
Citing figures from an Oxford University study, Cellebrite states an estimated $76 billion worth of illegal activities involve Bitcoin.
The Cellebrite Crypto Tracer Solution allows investigators to aggregate and curate millions of open-source and private references, deception data, and human intelligence, resulting in a dataset of over 522 million attributable points.
Leeor Ben-Peretz, chief strategy officer of Cellebrite, states that Cellebrite Crypto Tracer is able to attribute millions of data points, such as:
account type
account holders
contract types
contract owners
other metadata
It can also check on where the illicit funds were headed, whether that be a wallet or an exchange.
Ben-Peretz adds:
“Some of the major features of the solution include the ability to conduct risk scoring and profile hundreds of global exchanges, ATMs, mixers, money laundering systems, gambling services, and known criminal addresses and assign risk levels to transactions.”
Introducing our new #Cryptocurrency investigation solution! Did you know that in 2019 $76 billion of illegal activities involved #Bitcoin? Now you can gain full visibility into the crypto transactions involved in your investigations. Learn more: https://t.co/nETgXox8Sa pic.twitter.com/xddeCBrHBV — Cellebrite (@Cellebrite_UFED) July 28, 2020
John Jefferies, chief financial analyst of CipherTrace, predicts that, as cryptocurrencies become more mainstream and accepted by traditional financial institutions, criminals will also adopt them more widely, making for a “continued and escalating game of cat and mouse.” while adding:
“As the market capitalization of crypto grows, larger financial crimes and nation-state scale. Regulatory reform, driven by the updated FATF guidelines, will force jurisdiction arbitrage as new laws are enacted, globally on unsynchronized timelines.”
Jefferies addressed to the recent Twitter hack, stating that the situation could have been “much worse and shows that the blockchain community is wising up to the scammers.”:
“When cryptocurrencies first emerged, law enforcement agencies had very little understanding about how cryptocurrencies work and that the transactions can be traced on the public ledgers. The situation is much different today. We are working closely with law enforcement agencies on the recent Twitter hacking bitcoin scam, for example.”
Source: Cointelegraph | Image: Pixabay