AUSTRAC, the financial compliance enforcement agency in Australia, recently released a couple of new guides that would prevent illicit crypto use. The entities would be spotting situations when customers would use crypto for illegal activities- or even when they would be forced to pay ransomware creators. But, it also warned that de-banking users simply due to suspicion of such activities could be a harmful practice with severe negative effects.
AUSTRAC’s Guide Welcomed By CEO Of Blockchain Australia
In an announcement that was earlier, AUSTRAC mentioned that the growing value, acceptance, and adoption of blockchain technology and crypto had already led to an increase in cybercrime. The agency noted that cyber-enabled crime had slowly turned into quite an increasing threat to Australians. According to the Australian Cyber Security Center, close to 500 ransomware attacks had been reported in the financial year 2020-21- which was an increase of 15% from the previous year.
The criminal abuse of cryptocurrencies and ransomware guides are not only created to help spot illegal actors but also would make it easier to report any form of suspicious activity to AUSTRAC- something most businesses would be doing after reporting the matter to the cops. Steve Vallas, the CEO of Blockchain Australia, did welcome the new guidelines as he stated that the use of cryptocurrencies for any criminal activities had absolutely no place in their sector.
In the guide for ransomware, AUSTRAC did highlight a few indicators that a customer could be quickly trying to pay off a ransom. The list went on to include certain behaviors like impatience over transaction speed, and transferring huge holdings with a lack of account activity afterward.
