The U.K. Government is seeking to keep most of the $7 billion in Bitcoin it seized in connection with a Chinese investment fraud, following the conviction of the fraud’s alleged organizer this week.
Zhimin Qian pleaded guilty on counts of possessing and transferring criminal property at Southwark Crown Court on Monday, following last year’s conviction of her assistant Seng Hok Ling (also known as Jian Wen) on similar counts. This conviction now raises the question of who will keep the 61,000 BTC originally seized by UK authorities in 2018, with upwards of 120,000 victims in China seeking compensation for their losses.
Read more…
Source: Decrypt News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- U.S. Charges Chinese Military Officers in 2017 Equifax Hacking
February 10, 2020
Four members of China’s military were charged on Monday with hacking into Equifax, one of the nation’s largest credit reporting agencies, and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans in 2017. The charges underscored China’s quest to obtain Americans’ data and its willingness to flout a 2015 agreement with the United States to refrain from ...
- How Chinese Cybercriminals Use Business Playbook to Revamp Underground
February 10, 2020
Because of its longevity and technical sophistication, the Russian cybercriminal underground has long been the benchmark for threat researchers focused on studying cybercrime tactics and techniques; there is a plethora of publications dedicated to analyzing its economy and hacking forums. However, only a handful of studies have centered on the emerging threats and trends from ...
- KBOT: sometimes they come back
February 10, 2020
Although by force of habit many still refer to any malware as a virus, this once extremely common class of threats is gradually becoming a thing of the past. However, there are some interesting exceptions to this trend: we recently discovered malware that spread through injecting malicious code into Windows executable files; in other words, ...
- Introducing Loda Malware
February 10, 2020
Loda is a previously undocumented AutoIT malware with a variety of capabilities for spying on victims. Proofpoint first observed Loda in September of 2016 and it has since grown in popularity. The name ‘Loda’ is derived from a directory to which the malware author chose to write keylogger logs (Figure 14). It should be noted that some ...
- Happy New Fear! Gift-wrapped spam and phishing
February 7, 2020
In the run-up to Christmas and New Year, scam е-mails mentioning easy pickings, lottery winnings, and other cash surprises are especially popular. All the more so given how simple it is to adapt existing schemes simply by mentioning the holiday in the subject line. For example, one scam е-mail with the subject line “Xsmas gift” or ...
- Bouygues Construction falls victim to ransomware
February 5, 2020
Bouygues Construction has confirmed falling victim to ransomware that it detected across its network on January 30. “As a precautionary measure, information systems have been shut down to prevent any propagation,” the company said in a brief statement. “Our teams are currently fully focused on returning to normal as quickly as possible, with the support of experts. “Installations are ...