The ransom money from the WannaCry cyber attack which has been untouched in online accounts and has been on the watch for a while now by the twitter bot @actual_ransom has just being moved by the hackers.
It is said that more than $140,000 worth of bitcoin has been evacuated from the 3 accounts that have been linked to the ransomware.
it is still unknown why the accounts were emptied and why the funds were moved, but one thing is certain, the hackers are trying to get their hands on the money which will not be easily possible, as law enforcement agencies around the globe are tracking the funds , the ransomware attack was linked to North Korea but still on speculation.
As you know, when the WannaCry ransomware was spreading in may, the hackers behind the ransomware demanded that the victims pay a $300 ransom with bitcoin because the hackers believe that bitcoin will completely make them anonymous.
Though bitcoin transactions are anonymous they are also public, which is why the funds were able to be tracked from every bitcoin account that the hackers move the money into.
So far the funds have been moved from the three main accounts that were tied to WannaCry to nine other bitcoin accounts, If the hackers who carried out the cyberattack are moving the ransom money, they’re almost certainly aware they’re being watched.
Law enforcement officials are on alert, tracking where the bitcoin goes, according to Matthieu Suiche, founder of Comae Technologie.
Essentially, investigators will be able to see a trail of digital breadcrumbs leading from account to account.
Melanie Shapiro the CEO of identity security firm Token, said that the funds in the bitcoin accounts are probably being moved to make them less traceable and fully anonymous.and also quoted that…..
We can watch all of this bitcoin be moved around, but inevitably every move makes it harder to trace back to an individual
Shapiro also noted that there are services called ” tumblers” that let people make transactions to be harder to trace.
For the meantime, officials and researchers will keep an eye on the new bitcoin accounts into which the money has been moved in order to track what happens to it next.
