europol

Европейское агентство по правопорядку Europol в среду опубликовало два отчета, призывающих отрасль и законодателей заранее подготовиться к угрозам квантовых вычислений. В одном из отчетов, подготовленном Европейским центром по борьбе с киберпреступностью Europol, под названием «Квантовые вычисления и криптовалюты», отмечается, что криптокошельки являются «основной точкой уязвимости к квантовым угрозам». Кошельки зависят от закрытых ключей для авторизованных транзакций и открытых ключей для верификации; достаточно мощный квантовый компьютер может вывести закрытый ключ из открытого ключа, который уже был раскрыт, что позволяет злоумышленникам использовать средства без авторизации, этот момент обычно называют Q-Day. В отчете говорится, что хеш-функции, используемые для связывания блоков и поддержки майнинга, в основном обладают квантовой стойкостью.В отчете утверждается, что криптовалюты не рухнут из-за квантовых вычислений, но рекомендуется принять «активную защиту», включая поэтапный переход к квантово-устойчивой криптографии и улучшение безопасности кошельков и управления ключами. Кошельки с открытыми ключами, которые уже опубликованы в блокчейне, не могут быть исправлены задним числом; в отчете говорится, что единственным решением является предварительная миграция. Glassnode в мае этого года оценил, что уже 6,04 миллиона BTC (30,2% от выпущенного объема) открытых ключей были раскрыты. Обновление Bitcoin также имеет свои затраты: стандартизированные NIST постквантовые подписи в 10-120 раз больше, чем подписи ECDSA, используемые в Bitcoin, что может привести к перегрузке блоков и увеличению комиссий. В отчете приводится оценка исследования 2024 года, согласно которой миграция всех неиспользованных выходов транзакций потребует как минимум 76 дней простоя.Второй отчет «Сначала собираем, потом расшифровываем» был подготовлен в сотрудничестве с Университетом Карлоса III в Мадриде, исследуя поведение злоумышленников, которые сегодня собирают криптоданные, а затем расшифровывают их в будущем, и обнаруживает риски в таких протоколах, как TLS, SSH и OpenPGP.

According to market news, the European Cybercrime Centre, in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice and other agencies, has announced the dismantling of a malicious proxy service network named "SocksEscort" and the freezing of $3.5 million in cryptocurrency related to the case.The network is said to have compromised over 369,000 routers and IoT devices in 163 countries worldwide, providing users with over 35,000 proxies in recent years. The European Cybercrime Centre stated that 34 domain names and 23 servers were seized in operations across 7 countries, and payment platforms associated with the service are estimated to have received over $5.7 million in cryptocurrency. The investigation began in June 2025 and found that the infected devices were primarily used to facilitate criminal activities such as ransomware and DDoS attacks.The U.S. Department of Justice has charged that criminals used the proxy service to conceal their location and commit fraud, including bank and cryptocurrency account takeovers, citing multiple victim loss cases, including a New York cryptocurrency exchange customer who was scammed out of $1 million.

According to Cointelegraph, the FBI, Europol, and law enforcement agencies from 14 countries conducted a joint operation on March 3-4, successfully shutting down the cybercrime forum LeakBase. The forum had over 142,000 members and served as a platform for hackers to buy and sell stolen data and cybercrime tools.Law enforcement has seized user accounts, posts, credit details, private information, and IP logs as evidence, and executed search warrants and arrests in multiple countries. Notably, LeakBase's predecessor, Raidforums, was shut down in 2022 and had hosted leaked data containing personal information of approximately 272,000 users of the cryptocurrency wallet company Ledger. In recent years, data breaches in the cryptocurrency industry have continued to rise, including security incidents such as the hacking of Coinbase's internal systems.

According to market news, Coinbase, in collaboration with Microsoft, Europol, and more than ten other organizations, successfully shut down the phishing-as-a-service platform Tycoon 2FA and seized 330 related domains.Since its launch in August 2023, Tycoon has had approximately 2,000 users, operating over 24,000 domains, and sending tens of millions of fraudulent emails each month to over 500,000 businesses worldwide. It bypassed multi-factor authentication by stealing session cookies and tokens, primarily targeting email and online service accounts such as Microsoft 365, Outlook, and Gmail.In this operation, Coinbase assisted in tracking the cryptocurrency payments funding Tycoon’s operations and supported the civil lawsuit to seize the domains. The main developer has been identified as Saad Fridi, a Pakistani national.

According to Decrypt, the head of the European Financial and Economic Crime Centre (EFECC) of Europol warned this week that the methods of committing crimes using cryptocurrencies and blockchain are "becoming increasingly sophisticated."He pledged that Europol will continue to invest in supporting member states in conducting complex international investigations and called for the establishment of global standards and the provision of fair blockchain training to enhance cross-border investigations.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cryptoslate, Spanish law enforcement has teamed up with Europol to crack a large-scale transnational cryptocurrency money laundering case. The criminal organization laundered money for criminal groups in China and the Arab region through cryptocurrency transactions, with an amount involved exceeding 20 million euros.It is reported that the operation searched 14 locations and arrested 17 suspects, of which 15 have been detained pending trial. Law enforcement seized over 205,000 euros in cash, digital assets worth 183,000 euros, 18 luxury cars, and properties valued at approximately 2.5 million euros.

ChainCatcher news, according to Cointelegraph, the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) pointed out in a threat assessment report on serious and organized crime that artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency technologies play a significant role in enhancing the efficiency of crime.The law enforcement agency stated that criminal networks have demonstrated a rapid ability to adapt to new technologies. The report noted that the transformative nature of artificial intelligence makes it an extremely attractive tool in the eyes of criminals.The report stated that generative artificial intelligence "lowers the entry barrier for digital crime." The government agency indicated that artificial intelligence enables criminals to craft messages in multiple languages, allowing them to more precisely target victims globally. It also allows malicious actors to create malware and child sexual abuse materials.

ChainCatcher news, the European Police Organization collaborated with law enforcement agencies from six countries to dismantle an international drug trafficking group using cryptocurrency.The operation resulted in the arrest of 9 suspects. During the operation, valuable items including gold and luxury goods, €35,000 in cash, and €25 million in cryptocurrency were seized, amounting to $26.23 million. The total value of the seized assets was €27 million, equivalent to $28.33 million.

ChainCatcher message, data from Europol indicates that real estate, luxury goods, and cash-intensive businesses are the primary money laundering tools for major criminal networks in the EU, with cryptocurrency accounting for only a small proportion. Reports from Nasdaq and the U.S. Treasury show a significant disparity in the amount of illicit funds between traditional industries and the digital asset sector, with the latter representing only a small fraction of the total.