Treasury Department Sanctions Dark Web Market Hydra and 100s of Its Cryptocurrency Addresses

Ukraine's CERT discovers new Russian phishing campaigns, Russian state gas giant Gazprom's site forced offline after hack, Block confirms data breach by former employee, much more

Check out my latest CSO column that discusses mounting concerns over Russian cyber threats addressed in a House Homeland Committee meeting yesterday and the role that the federal government has played to help organizations.

While the German government, in a joint operation with U.S. law enforcement, took down dark web marketplace Hydra, the U.S. Treasury Department simultaneously imposed new sanctions on the market and more than a hundred of its cryptocurrency addresses.

According to blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, Hydra has facilitated more than $5 billion in illicit cryptocurrency transactions since it launched in 2015. Around half of the roughly $2 billion in transactions going into Hydra's cryptocurrency addresses in 2021 and early 2022 were from illicit or “risky” sources, such as stolen funds, dark-web markets, ransomware, online gambling, scams, and individuals and organizations facing sanctions, according to cryptocurrency tracing firm Chainalysis. (Andy Greenberg / Wired)

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