Although China’s regulator have tightened the supervision of cryptocurrency activities, launched investigation, tracing,bank card freezing and other actions, and have achieved initial results. However, due to the characteristics of anonymity, complexity and transnational nature of cryptocurrency, regulators still face many difficulties in investigating and cracking down on crimes related to cryptocurrency.

According to PeckShield, a well-known Chinese security company, there were 151 fraud cases related to cryptocurrency in 2020, 37 times more than in 2018 and four times more than in 2019.

In 2020, the losses caused by cryptocurrency fraud exceeded $3.2 billion, which was lower than that in 2019. However, new-type scams emerged.

In 2020, there is an outbreak of cryptocurrency blackmail virus. The target of blackmail changed from individuals to enterprises, financial institutions and even government websites. Blackmailers asked for bitcoin and Monroe as ransom.

According to the statistics of PeckShield, there were more than 140 blackmail attacks in 2020, and the attack frequency increases by 260% over the previous year.

Blackmail attack means that hackers lock the victim’s network equipment or important crypto files to extort money from users through phishing attack, virus software, network penetration or vulnerability attack.

Blackmail attack is developing rapidly with unprecedented destructiveness and impact. It has become one of the most common and destructive security threats in 2020, and among which DoppelPaymer is one of the most aggressive blackmail software.

DoppelPaymer blackmail software started in June 2019. It is mainly spread through remote desktop Login Protocol (RDP) hacking and spam. There is a decompression file in the email attachment. After running, it releases the blackmail software program and executes it.

Learning from the previous experience, blackmail software is mostly a transnational attack by hackers, and the hackers using bitcoin to collect ransom. Cryptocurrency tracking is a good way to recover the extorted funds, but the crackdown on extortion software requires a combination of various technical means and global cooperation.