The U.S. Department of Justice said Monday it was seeking to acquire $2.3 million in Bitcoin seized from members of newly identified ransomware group Chaos.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas filed a civil complaint last week seeking the confiscation of 20.3 Bitcoin. in press releasewhich described the funds as suspected revenue from money laundering and ransomware attacks.
Members of the FBI’s Dallas division seized Bitcoin in mid-April. Authorities say the coin is said to be tied to “Hors.”
Authorities were able to seize Bitcoin using recovery seed phrases via Electrum, a Bitcoin wallet that debuted in 2011, according to a citizen’s complaint. The funds are now held in government-controlled wallets, he added.
The government’s explanation of how funds are linked to criminal conduct was in detail, along with underlying crimes, “sealed as highly sensitive documents.”
A spokesman for the U.S. Lawyer’s Office for the Northern District of Texas declined to comment Decryptioncites the issue as a pending lawsuit.
Bitcoin, tied to the infamous Silk Road Marketplace, is the government’s biggest haul and is comprised of 69,370 Bitcoins, worth $8.2 billion today. January, government I received it An approval to commence liquidation of confiscated funds.
chaos It has appeared According to cybersecurity company Cisco Talos, it’s already February. After encrypting data on the victim’s computer, members of the group often request ransom payments, threatening to disclose sensitive information they have collected.
Chaos is described as a ransomware as a service group that provides cross-platform software that is said to be compatible with Windows, ESXi, Linux and NAS systems.
Ransomware attackers often use another software program called Chaos, but Cisco Talos says it doesn’t believe the group in question is not related to the developer, and is likely exploiting the confusion to hide the identity of its members.
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