A new report out by the FBI details all complaints made to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) in 2016. Some of the crimes listed in the Annual report include, Malware/Scareware, Confidence Fraud/Romance, Corporate Data Breach, Credit Card Fraud, Crimes Against Children, Personal Data Breach, Phishing/Vishing/Smishing/Pharming and Ransomware. On the whole internet related crime went up by 24% from the previous year.

Losses from cyber crimes rose 24 percent to $1.33 billion in 2016: FBI report - Reuters - 06/21/2017

Businesses lost $360 million to cyber criminals, who tricked them into wiring money using fraudulent emails that appeared to be from corporate executives and suppliers, according to the report released on Wednesday.

 

RANSOMWARE

The report only covers 2016 so doesn't yet include the recent WannaCry ransomware attacks. Ransomware complaints only rose by 8.23% from 2015 but the combined losses went up by 38.4%. After this years WannaCry ransomware attacks on nearly 300,000 computers world wide these numbers are expected to increase dramatically.

Year	Complaints	Losses
2015	2453	$1,600,000
2016	2673	$2,400,000

"WannaCry" ransomware attack losses could reach $4 billion CBS News - 05/16/2017

Global financial and economic losses from the "WannaCry" attack that crippled computers in at least 150 countries could swell into the billions of dollars, making it one of the most damaging incidents involving so-called ransomware.
Cyber risk modeling firm Cyence estimates the potential costs from the hack at $4 billion, while other groups predict losses would be in the hundreds of millions.

 

BITCOIN

I've read and heard anecdotal evidence recently that suggests the recent WannaCry Ransomware attack effected the price of Bitcoin. So I decided to take a closer look at the numbers and see if this was actually the case and to what extent.

Ransomware Outbreak WannaCry | Red Socks - 05/12/2017

Currently we are seeing a large scale ransomware outbreak. This ransomware outbreak is more devastating than others because it spreads laterally.

 
There are 3 Bitcoin addresses hardcoded into the ransomware code according to a RedSocks report.

Address	No. Transactions	Total BTC Received	Final BTC Balance
13AM4VW2dhxYgXeQepoHkHSQuy6NgaEb94	128	19.74510304	19.74510304
12t9YDPgwueZ9NyMgw519p7AA8isjr6SMw	109	17.48628986	17.48628986
115p7UMMngoj1pMvkpHijcRdfJNXj6LrLn*	121	14.41067602	14.41067602
TOTAL	358	51.64206892	51.64206892

(*Note: Bitcoin address has been around since 2010)

Currently 51.64206892 = $141,279.60

 
Looking at the transaction history of all 3 Bitcoin addresses associated with the WannaCry criminals shows us 3 main spikes in daily transactions on the 13th, 15th and 25th May.

Also Google Trends shows a sharp spike in WannaCry related searches on the 15th May 2017.

As you can see in the graph below these dates correlate with a noticeable drop in the Bitcoin price of those days.

Something like WannaCry isn't exactly a good advert for Bitcoin. Looking at the data shows us that the media frenzy surrounding WannaCry did have a direct impact on the price of Bicoin at the time, but only temporarily it seems. According to the article below WannaCry had no effect on the price going up but I think ultimately though it looks like, in part, it did actually help the price of Bitcoin in the long run.

Bitcoin Achieved $2,000, Regardless of WannaCry Ransomware, Change of Image? - Deep Dot Web - 05/22/2017

Analysts from CNBC attributed the recent price surge of bitcoin to the rising global awareness of bitcoin from high profile and institutional investors, as well as the rising demand for bitcoin from US-based investors looking to avoid economic uncertainty and instability with a safe haven asset in bitcoin. Since early 2016, bitcoin has been perceived as digital gold, safe haven asset and wealth management product (WMP). An increasing number of investors have begun to purchase bitcoin as absolutely necessary hedge against market instability.

 

SUMMARY

Over all WannaCry doesn't seem to have had much of an effect on the Bitcoin market, a large part due to the amount of money that has been invested into the Bitcoin recently. As we can see from the graphs though it did have a short and dramatic negative effect still. We also see the threat of ransomware not going away any time soon.

Ransomware of $1 Million Crushes Company | @mrosenquist - Steemit - 06/20/2017

A South Korean web hosting company struggles for survival after agreeing to pay a ransomware extortion of $1 million to hackers.

This malvertising campaign infected PCs with ransomware without users even clicking a link | AZnet - 06/21/2017

A widespread malvertising campaign was probably behind a ransomware attack which affected UK universities and others, and it's capable of infecting users who simply visited a site compromised with the malware.

Speculating on crime and profiting from it doesn't feel very ethical but with the price of Bitcoin being directly effected by the recent outbreak of the WannaCry ransomware this got me thinking about the idea of buying Bitcoin straight after a ransomware attack and sit on it for a month or 2. I soon realized though that if it wasn't for the fact Bitcoin was going up anyway the negative impact would've been a lot greater.

 

FORTIFIED

Steemit | Gab