Why do Hackers prefer Bitcoin?

The victims of the virus attack "Wanna cry", which began Friday, received a simple text message on their computer screens saying, "If you want to see your files again, pay $ 300 in digital currency in the next 72 hours and encrypt files." Raid attacks, why do Internet hackers prefer them?

In the early days of ransom attacks, usually through an e-mail message that looks normal but has a link when clicked, the hacker gets access to the network and the file encryption capability, the payment method was limited. The hackers asked to transfer money through Western Union or a bank account, but this transfer of funds could always have been tiring if the authorities concerned intervened.

Then came the formation of the digital currency created by Satoshi Nakamoto (it is reported that Nakamoto is an Australian entrepreneur named Craig Stephen Wright) and was launched in 2009 and provided two important advantages to cybercriminals. First, it is a decentralized currency where it is dealt with without an intermediary such as a bank or card company Credit, and second, they provide ambiguity and stigmatization to the clients, and cannot be traced.

A currency created, currently worth more than $ 1600, can be saved in a virtual wallet known only as a number. According to a recent study published by the University of Cambridge last month, about six million people around the world have such a portfolio, spending their money buying goods and products from the growing number of shops that accept the currency, and also buying illegal goods such as drugs and weapons. In the black market on the Internet.

The use of currency is also easier, and this applies to Internet criminals who launch ransom attacks. "If you have the skills to get an iTunes account, you're more likely to download and start distributing ransom tools," says David Prens, chief technology officer at London-based technical consultancy Baringa Partners. "Then you go to the dark Internet and" wash " Currencies of the bitcoin that have been harvested and converted into liquid cash.

Developers of these tools also make money by including means to deduct a share of any amount paid by victims of cyber-attacks in an automated manner.

The amount of the ransom against data recovery and decryption is acceptable (not high) with instructions on how to create a virtual wallet and purchase the required currency to configure to pay for the code that will decrypt the data on the victim's computer or network.

For some companies, demands for ransom attacks are sometimes not equivalent to the time wasted by IT experts or trying to find backups of data, preferring to pay for data recovery and resume, although this may mean that hackers may have left a "Back "to re-penetrate computers if they wanted to.

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