Content material warning: Due to the character of a number of the actions we found, this sequence of articles comprises content material that some readers might 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 embrace pictures or movies.
Having explored the ‘reliable’ and not-so-legitimate enterprise pursuits that menace actors are discussing on felony 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 felony actions can have troubling penalties. It could actually make disrupting these menace actors harder, notably in relation to seizing belongings, and may make investigations – ‘following the cash’ – extra advanced. Furthermore, it will 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, straight or not directly.
Within the cybersecurity business, we typically deal with cybercrime as being in a silo – to contemplate it a definite, specialist, and remoted exercise, restricted to the digital world of networks and hosts. Not unreasonably, our efforts are typically centered on the ‘cyber kill chain’; standard menace intelligence; and bolstering protections, safety consciousness, and different preventative measures. And within the wake of assaults, our consideration often 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 sometimes 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 extra investigative and intelligence alternatives round attribution, motivation, connections, and extra.
Furthermore, a number of the actions we’ve uncovered on this sequence strongly counsel that we must always not put menace actors on any type of pedestal. They don’t seem to be 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 actual world, from which they’re actively profiting.
Proactive intelligence-gathering and investigation on the boundaries of reliable and illegitimate earnings, and of cybercrime and real-world crime/enterprise, might assist hit menace actors the place it actually hurts – their cash. Whereas we don’t declare that this might be straightforward to perform, the knowledge we’ve shared on this sequence could possibly be a helpful 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 felony boards – typically accompanied by screenshots, pictures, and particular biographical data – can present investigative and attribution alternatives which have beforehand been underexplored. These could be notably helpful on felony boards, the place individuals are sometimes nameless.
For example, throughout the course of our investigation, we famous menace actors revealing the next data of their discussions of ‘authorized enterprise’:
- References to the areas (international locations/areas/cities) in they reside and/or function
- Different biographical data, together with age, marital standing, and whether or not they had youngsters
- Unredacted or partially redacted screenshots revealing profile photos, names, addresses, and reference numbers
- Images of areas, which might doubtlessly be recognized via open-source investigation
- References to particular quantities of cash and purchases, typically accompanied by dates and instances
- References to earlier convictions, which could possibly be used for potential identification
- Detailed discussions of authorized or unlawful schemes and actions
- Particulars of recommendation obtained from legal professionals, accountants, and associates.
Understanding thine enemy
Our investigation additionally demonstrates the breadth and depth of data that menace actors possess about numerous industries, loopholes, rules, investigative methods, and laws in numerous territories and international locations – in addition to what they learn about cash laundering and legitimizing methods. All of this may present investigators with helpful details about what menace actors know and what they don’t, which might help to tell future operations. It additionally gives a broader view of the menace panorama, and the way the cyber model of that panorama interacts and overlaps with menace landscapes in different felony domains – leading to a richer strategic intelligence image.
Alternatives for collaboration
We hope that our analysis might encourage higher collaboration between the cybersecurity business, legislation enforcement, and regulators, as a result of it will possibly assist hyperlink the incidents we take care of and reply to day by day, to the real-world offenses, belongings, and companies which legislation enforcement and regulators have the flexibility, and mandate, to analyze. Once more, we don’t declare that our analysis will remedy this drawback, however we expect it might present some helpful frequent floor to encourage collaboration and information-sharing.
The proof we uncovered – of hyperlinks between carders and drug sellers; menace actors and numerous industries and sectors; and menace actors and real-world felony exercise – signifies that we might doubtlessly hyperlink some cybercriminals to the move of the ensuing funds into wider economies, whether or not felony or reliable. Whereas this might require openness, willingness, and cautious administration, we recommend that extra might and must be achieved to analyze, observe, and disrupt menace actors utilizing the kind of data we’ve mentioned.
Some preliminary sensible strategies:
- Researchers might flag discussions about new strategies of cash laundering, authorized and unlawful investments, insights about menace actor teams (areas, motivations, capabilities, connections, and so forth.), and monetary identifiers to factors of contact in legislation enforcement and monetary regulatory our bodies
- Legislation enforcement officers and monetary investigators might 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 might profit from embedding applications specializing in these areas of crossover.
Including to the kill chain?
Whereas that is extra of a theoretical suggestion, it is likely to be value contemplating including two steps to the tip of the kill chain when coping with financially motivated menace actors:
- Cashing out and cash laundering. Financially motivated menace actors need to understand a revenue and disguise the origin of their funds
- Spending and funding. This step might overlap with the earlier one to some extent, however right here, menace actors are in search of to spend/make investments their illicit good points, and use them to generate additional revenue, somewhat than merely disguising the supply(s)
Each steps could also be helpful additions to the kill chain for 4 causes:
- They’re areas during which some menace actors is likely to be much less acquainted/succesful, so they could make errors or let slip revealing data, resulting in alternatives for attribution and additional investigation
- They might contain interplay with monetary authorities, a wider monetary ecosystem, and/or regulatory businesses, rising alternatives for monitoring and ‘crimson flags’
- These are the factors at which we are able to harm financially motivated menace actors essentially the most – within the pocket – so it is sensible to dedicate at the least some consideration to them
- As mentioned beforehand, these steps provide 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 felony boards, however boards don’t inform us all the pieces there may be to know concerning the felony ecosystem. Nevertheless, 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 helpful glimpse into an underexplored space.
Finally, although, we solely checked out 5 boards, so our work must be thought-about extra of an preliminary exploration than an exhaustive survey.
Linking the crimes and enterprise practices mentioned on this speak to particular incidents, campaigns, and menace actors represents a problem, one past the scope of this work. Nevertheless, we famous that in a number of instances, menace actors didn’t merely hypothesize or present normal particulars, however admitted to particular exercise, typically together with pictures, areas, and biographical data (though we also needs to level out that some menace actors could possibly be mendacity or embellishing their claims).
Future analysis on this matter might embrace:
- 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 most typical amongst financially motivated menace actors, and whether or not they differ in accordance with geography and sort 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 information, the primary exploration of so-called ‘authorized enterprise’ discussions on felony 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 include a lot of relevance to cybersecurity. We imagine that is an oversight, which our work seeks to handle by highlighting each the strategic and tactical intelligence advantages that exploring and monitoring these sections can deliver.
There may be an in depth range and plurality of investments, schemes, and enterprise pursuits – each authorized and unlawful – that financially motivated menace actors focus on and develop into concerned in after benefiting from assaults. We encourage our colleagues within the cybersecurity group to contemplate financially motivated cybercrime as an integral a part of a wider economic system, somewhat than a siloed and remoted exercise.
Particularly, we invite colleagues to:
- Think about the place menace actors are investing and spending their cash after assaults – and whether or not this might present extra context and worth
- Share data with friends, legislation enforcement, and different related businesses, comparable to monetary regulators; requesting data 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 linked to different felony networks
- Mirror on, and contribute to, our suggestion of together with extra steps on the cyber kill chain
As we famous earlier, we contemplate this analysis to be a place to begin. We’re persevering with to look into this matter, and we look ahead to sharing extra findings sooner or later.
