According to media reports, South Korean authorities are becoming more vigilant to digital assets cybercrime. They have also included crimes related to blockchain and digital assets as their priority.
In a recent move, the South Korean Police have listed dark web tracking, virtual asset analysis, and DDoS attacks as “three central tasks of the cyber-terrorism investigation” that the authorities “must urgently address.” A DDoS attack means Distributed Denial-of-Service DDoS attack and it is a cybercrime in which the attacker floods a server with internet traffic to prevent users from accessing connected online services and sites.
On Monday, the Korean National Police Agency announced that it has decided to establish a task force to respond to cybercrime platforms and that three sub-departments will carry out three main tasks. Additionally, the National Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency announced that it has decided to establish and operate the TF Cybercrime Platform Response Task Force (Special Task Force).
This new unit will work to research response technology and investigate cyber-terrorism tracking technology. The TF consists of ‘three parts’ with the themes mentioned below:
- Dark Web Tracking
- Cryptocurrency Analysis
- DDoS attack monitoring
Notably, the TF group will be operated to research response technologies and investigative techniques to track down the heart of cyber-terrorist attacks.
The South Korean police opined that this technology, as an anonymous network and means of payment, is a significant threat to future security as it is abused in cyber-terrorism crimes and cybercrime in crimes in general.
Sources reveal that the dark web is an online space that can only be accessed by installing a particular program as an anonymous network service. It also has a feature that does not let the server’s IP address and the visitor get exposed. For this reason, the number of users is continuously increasing worldwide via the distribution of malicious programs such as ransomware, drug trafficking, child sexual exploitation, and illegal filming.
Virtual assets have become a significant currency used on the dark web for anonymous payment. Cybercriminals are leveraging vehicles such as crypto/blockchain and other emerging technologies to find sophisticated ways of committing online crypto frauds, money laundering, terrorist funding, and ransomware attacks. In November, the server of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was hacked, and a ransom was demanded. The hackers demanded a ransom of 200 crores INR ($24.5 million) in cryptocurrency.
Last month, in a major move against cybercrime, South Korea announced its first independent sanctions related to cryptocurrency theft and cyberattacks against North Korean groups and individuals. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Seoul has placed four individuals and seven businesses on a blacklist for their alleged involvement in cyberattacks and cryptocurrency theft.