Content material warning: Due to the character of among the actions we found, this sequence of articles accommodates content material that some readers could discover upsetting. This consists of profanity and references to medication, drug dependancy, playing, pornography, violence, arson, and intercourse work. These references are textual solely and don’t embody photos or movies.
Having explored the ‘official’ and not-so-legitimate enterprise pursuits that menace actors are discussing on prison boards, we’ve arrived on the concluding chapter of our sequence. Right here, we’ll focus on the implications and alternatives that these actions current.
As we’ve famous all through this sequence, menace actors diversifying into different industries and prison actions can have troubling penalties. It could possibly make disrupting these menace actors harder, notably relating to seizing property, and may make investigations – ‘following the cash’ – extra advanced. Furthermore, it may possibly enhance menace actors’ wealth, energy, and affect, which once more can complicate investigations. And it implies that their crimes can have an effect on extra victims, instantly or not directly.
Within the cybersecurity trade, we generally deal with cybercrime as being in a silo – to think about it a definite, specialist, and remoted exercise, restricted to the digital world of networks and hosts. Not unreasonably, our efforts are usually centered on the ‘cyber kill chain’; typical menace intelligence; and bolstering protections, safety consciousness, and different preventative measures. And within the wake of assaults, our consideration normally goes to the victims – whether or not these are organizations coping with incidents, or people who’ve been scammed.
In the meantime, the perpetrators slip again into the shadows, and we don’t usually take into consideration what they do as soon as an assault is over, or the place the cash goes. This query has not traditionally been prioritized by safety researchers.
However maybe we must always spend extra time wanting into how cybercriminals are utilizing and investing their income. Doing so can result in further investigative and intelligence alternatives round attribution, motivation, connections, and extra.
Furthermore, among the actions we’ve uncovered on this sequence strongly counsel that we must always not put menace actors on any sort of pedestal. They aren’t simply cybercriminals – they’re criminals, full cease. They shouldn’t be glorified, or celebrated, or portrayed as something besides what they’re: individuals who make cash on the expense of victims. Our investigation means that at the least some menace actors are engaged in exploitative, dangerous, and unlawful actions, each on-line and in the true world, from which they’re actively profiting.
Proactive intelligence-gathering and investigation on the boundaries of official and illegitimate earnings, and of cybercrime and real-world crime/enterprise, may assist hit menace actors the place it actually hurts – their cash. Whereas we don’t declare that this may be straightforward to perform, the knowledge we’ve shared on this sequence might be a priceless first step in laying the foundations for future efforts and analysis on this vein.
Attribution and investigative avenues
As proven in our earlier articles, the schemes and techniques which menace actors define intimately on prison boards – generally accompanied by screenshots, pictures, and particular biographical info – can present investigative and attribution alternatives which have beforehand been underexplored. These will be notably helpful on prison boards, the place contributors are sometimes nameless.
As an illustration, in the course of the course of our investigation, we famous menace actors revealing the next info of their discussions of ‘authorized enterprise’:
- References to the places (nations/areas/cities) in they reside and/or function
- Different biographical info, together with age, marital standing, and whether or not they had youngsters
- Unredacted or partially redacted screenshots revealing profile footage, names, addresses, and reference numbers
- Images of places, which may probably be recognized by means of open-source investigation
- References to particular quantities of cash and purchases, generally accompanied by dates and occasions
- References to earlier convictions, which might be used for potential identification
- Detailed discussions of authorized or unlawful schemes and actions
- Particulars of recommendation obtained from attorneys, accountants, and associates.
Realizing thine enemy
Our investigation additionally demonstrates the breadth and depth of information that menace actors possess about varied industries, loopholes, laws, investigative methods, and laws in varied territories and nations – in addition to what they find out about cash laundering and legitimizing methods. All of this could present investigators with helpful details about what menace actors know and what they don’t, which can assist to tell future operations. It additionally offers a broader view of the menace panorama, and the way the cyber model of that panorama interacts and overlaps with menace landscapes in different prison domains – leading to a richer strategic intelligence image.
Alternatives for collaboration
We hope that our analysis could encourage better collaboration between the cybersecurity trade, legislation enforcement, and regulators, as a result of it may possibly assist hyperlink the incidents we take care of and reply to each day, to the real-world offenses, property, and companies which legislation enforcement and regulators have the power, and mandate, to analyze. Once more, we don’t declare that our analysis will remedy this drawback, however we expect it could present some helpful widespread floor to encourage collaboration and information-sharing.
The proof we uncovered – of hyperlinks between carders and drug sellers; menace actors and varied industries and sectors; and menace actors and real-world prison exercise – signifies that we may probably hyperlink some cybercriminals to the move of the ensuing funds into wider economies, whether or not prison or official. Whereas this may require openness, willingness, and cautious administration, we propose that extra may and needs to be accomplished to analyze, observe, and disrupt menace actors utilizing the form of info we’ve mentioned.
Some preliminary sensible options:
- Researchers may flag discussions about new strategies of cash laundering, authorized and unlawful investments, insights about menace actor teams (places, motivations, capabilities, connections, and so forth.), and monetary identifiers to factors of contact in legislation enforcement and monetary regulatory our bodies
- Regulation enforcement officers and monetary investigators may share identifiers and indicators from their very own investigations with researchers, to find out if there are hyperlinks to campaigns or particular teams
- Each events could profit from embedding packages specializing in these areas of crossover.
Including to the kill chain?
Whereas that is extra of a theoretical suggestion, it is perhaps price contemplating including two steps to the top of the kill chain when coping with financially motivated menace actors:
- Cashing out and cash laundering. Financially motivated menace actors wish to understand a revenue and disguise the origin of their funds
- Spending and funding. This step could overlap with the earlier one to some extent, however right here, menace actors are searching for to spend/make investments their illicit positive aspects, and use them to generate additional revenue, fairly than merely disguising the supply(s)
Each steps could also be helpful additions to the kill chain for 4 causes:
- They’re areas by which some menace actors is perhaps much less acquainted/succesful, so they could make errors or let slip revealing info, resulting in alternatives for attribution and additional investigation
- They could contain interplay with monetary authorities, a wider monetary ecosystem, and/or regulatory businesses, growing alternatives for monitoring and ‘pink flags’
- These are the factors at which we will damage financially motivated menace actors essentially the most – within the pocket – so it is sensible to commit at the least some consideration to them
- As mentioned beforehand, these steps supply potential for collaboration, information-sharing, and cooperation with monetary and legislation enforcement authorities.
Caveats and future analysis
Our work on this sequence centered on a number of prison boards, however boards don’t inform us every part there’s to know concerning the prison ecosystem. Nonetheless, we did select a number of outstanding boards recognized to be frequented by prolific menace actors (together with ransomware associates, preliminary entry brokers, and malware builders), and boards can present a priceless glimpse into an underexplored space.
Finally, although, we solely checked out 5 boards, so our work needs to be thought of extra of an preliminary exploration than an exhaustive survey.
Linking the crimes and enterprise practices mentioned on this discuss to particular incidents, campaigns, and menace actors represents a problem, one past the scope of this work. Nonetheless, we famous that in a number of circumstances, menace actors didn’t merely hypothesize or present basic particulars, however admitted to particular exercise, generally together with pictures, places, and biographical info (though we also needs to level out that some menace actors might be mendacity or embellishing their claims).
Future analysis on this subject may embody:
- Extra detailed investigations, together with analysis into different boards, marketplaces, Telegram channels, and so forth., evaluating the outcomes to ours, and figuring out additional alternatives for attribution, investigation, monitoring, and collaboration
- Exploration of the feasibility of linking particular assaults and campaigns to particular investments and enterprise practices – which can contain collaboration, information-sharing, monetary evaluation, and/or tracing cryptocurrency
- Statistical analysis into the prevalence of assorted crimes/enterprise pursuits, to achieve an understanding of that are commonest amongst financially motivated menace actors, and whether or not they differ in response to geography and kind of menace actor (infostealer campaigns versus ransomware, for instance).
Wrapping up
Whereas there has beforehand been analysis into particular strategies of cryptocurrency laundering utilized by cybercriminals (notably ransomware actors), that is, to our data, the primary exploration of so-called ‘authorized enterprise’ discussions on prison boards, which have been round for nearly twenty years on two very outstanding, well-established Russian-language boards, and for a shorter time on others.
These sections have traditionally been missed by researchers, presumably as a result of they don’t seem to comprise a lot of relevance to cybersecurity. We imagine that is an oversight, which our work seeks to deal with by highlighting each the strategic and tactical intelligence advantages that exploring and monitoring these sections can convey.
There may be an intensive range and plurality of investments, schemes, and enterprise pursuits – each authorized and unlawful – that financially motivated menace actors focus on and change into concerned in after making the most of assaults. We encourage our colleagues within the cybersecurity group to think about financially motivated cybercrime as an integral a part of a wider financial system, fairly than a siloed and remoted exercise.
Particularly, we invite colleagues to:
- Take into account the place menace actors are investing and spending their cash after assaults – and whether or not this might present further context and worth
- Share info with friends, legislation enforcement, and different related businesses, comparable to monetary regulators; requesting info in return
- The place acceptable, consider cybercrime not as an remoted exercise in and of itself, however as a part of a a lot wider and extra advanced ecosystem related to different prison networks
- Replicate on, and contribute to, our suggestion of together with further steps on the cyber kill chain
As we famous earlier, we take into account this analysis to be a place to begin. We’re persevering with to look into this subject, and we look ahead to sharing further findings sooner or later.
