Recent research found that 74% of ransomware revenue goes to Russia-linked hackers. It also revealed more than $400 million worth of crypto-currency payments due to these ransomware attacks affiliated with Russia. Researchers said, “a huge amount of crypto-currency-based money laundering” goes through Russian crypto-companies.” However, Russia has denied accusations. They claimed that they never supported cyber-criminals.
Chainalysis has conducted the research. They mentioned that by using public blockchain transaction records, they have followed the flow of money of the hacking groups. They also reviewed the digital wallets of known hacking groups. The analyst firm confirmed that they can easily identify the hacking groups based on some characteristics like ransomware code.
They mentioned that most of the hacking groups are from Russia. Because the groups operate in Russian on Russian-speaking forums. The hacking group is also linked to Evil Corp. This cyber-crime group is wanted by the US. Researchers said, “In any given quarter, the illicit and risky addresses account for between 29% and 48% of all funds received by Moscow City crypto-currency businesses.”
However, Russian authorities announced they’d dismantled ransomware group REvil last month. They have performed it at the request of the United States. Russian President Vladimir Putin said at his 2021 summit with US President Joe Biden, “Russia is not listed in this ranking of countries that see the most significant number of cyber-attacks from their territory.”