Hackers Threatening to Reveal Sensitive Data: Should You Worry?

According to a report from the nonprofit organization Identity Theft Resource Centerthe number of online attacks on small businesses increase by 28 percent in 2023. But this year, hackers fell back into their old habits and once again began targeting large, data-rich organizations with lots of cash and digital assets.

During this year of 2024, cybercriminals from the top 10 countries have carried out 20 major hacks classified for the first time according to recent research from the University of Oxford based According to the World Cybercrime Index (WCI) cybercrime threat score: Russia (58.39), Ukraine (36.44), China (27.86), United States (25.01), Nigeria (21.28 ), Romania (14.83), North Korea (10.61), United Kingdom (9.01), Brazil (8.93), India (6.13).

During May alone, there were consecutive mega hacks with digital asset considerations.

Russian-speaking hacker group RansomHub undertook their historic attack on major auction house Christies, which had global sales revenue of $6.2 billion in 2023. The skilled extortionist hackers also smugly took credit for hacking Frontier Communications, which provides internet services to through eight partners in more than 25 US states. reported $5.75 billion in revenue in 2023.

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Owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault, who also owns luxury goods group Kering, which has an entire team dedicated to web3 and metaverse, Christie's sells nfts and is credited with selling one of the most expensive nfts: “Everydays” from Beeple for $69.5 million. in 2021. The Christie's cyberattack was carried out by RansomHub before New York Auction Week, where $922 million worth of art was auctioned. Auctioned out after Christie's accidentally technology/2023/08/21/christies-security-breach-location/” target=”_blank” rel=””>exposed the location data of hundreds of works consigned last year. RansomHub is attempting to extort Christie's and is threatening to auction off “sensitive personal information” on at least 500,000 of its high-net-worth clients to the highest bidder on the dark web.

Not to downplay RansomHub's hacking achievements, but the biggest hack during May was by the notorious cybercriminal group ShinyHunters, which has taken credit for a long list of attacks since 2020, including on Banco Santander on May 30. ShinyHunters is one of the largest in history in terms of global casualties; This group hacked over 560 million (560 million, to be precise) treasure trove of sensitive user information, including full names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, ticket sales and event details, information of orders and partial payment cards. data from the world's largest event ticket seller, Ticketmaster/Live Nation, which are sale for $500,000 on the dark web. Ticketmaster/Live Nations controls 70% of ticket sales and is subject to an antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice that could potentially lead to a breakup of the entertainment giant to allow for greater competition and allow smaller players to make a bigger profit. participation in the ticket sales market. .

Ticketmaster sells concert tickets in exchange for digital assets and offers nft ticket sales on the Flow blockchain. Token controlled sales are nft-token-gated-sales/” target=”_blank” rel=””>compatible

These attacks are potentially problematic for digital asset owners because they could lead to the commission of new cybercrimes in the future and potentially put sensitive personal information of taxpayers in the hands of tax commissioners. The Australian government, which is part of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Global Fiscal Control (J5), Announced which is now working with Ticketmaster and the FBI to “better understand the incident.”

Guy Ficco, Senior Chief of Criminal Investigation at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) crypto-tax-cases-this-year-and-going-forward-by-sandra-r-brown-evan-davis-philipp-behrendt/#:~:text=He%20emphasized%20that%20the%20IRS,continue%20in%20the%20foreseeable%20future.” target=”_blank” rel=””>reported an “increase” in tax evasion related to “pure crypto tax crimes.” As a result, the IRS remembered Taxpayers who are generally required to report all income earned on their tax returns, including income earned from digital asset transactions, which could include the sale of nfts or the resale of tokenized event tickets.

The IRS warned wealthy people about three tax traps as part of the dirty dozen campaign, including improper deductions for art donations and nfts designed for them by dishonest promoters and shady tax professionals. The IRS too crypto-other-digital-asset-transactions-on-their-tax-return” target=”_blank” rel=””>fixed which in 2024 will intensify its audit efforts for high-income taxpayers, large partnerships, corporations and digital asset accounts.^(eleven)