Mainichi reports that the Japanese police are investigating three people may be involved in kryptogamen. Assume that the suspects mainile Monero on other people’s computers without the consent of the owners. If the police will formally press charges, this will be the first “cryptocurrency” criminal case in Japan.
The police claimed that this scheme worked in the fall of 2017. The case is being investigated in a number of prefectures, Central Japan. The suspects have already been fined 100,000 yen for illegal possession of a computer virus.
They insist on their innocence, saying that the program “spread the same way as Internet advertising”.
The capitalization of the anonymous cryptocurrency Monero reaches $1.9 billion (according to Coinmarketcap). According to Japanese authorities, along with zcash for Monero and DASH, which also provide anonymity to its users, is a great tool for criminals, money launderers. Not so long ago under pressure from the financial services Agency of Japan (FSA) Monero has been removed from the stock exchange Coincheck, a victim of the largest-ever theft of cryptocurrency.
An important feature of Monero is that it can create on an ordinary home computer. Using this, the hackers installed on the computers of their victims malware that produces relatively unnoticed cryptocurrency (in favor of the attackers). For example, in March a flaw in one of the Linux applications has allowed hackers mined Monero on $75 000, and in may it was reported about malicious software, which is not only engaged in mining, but also leads to system crash when you try to delete it.
The suspects allegedly used in his activities of soft Coinhive designed for installation on websites and mining Monero at the expense of their visitors. This scheme itself is legitimate and is even used by UNICEF Australia to raise funds for charity projects. However, hackers use this way to personal enrichment and most importantly, without the consent of computer owners.
One of the companies on computer security reported that from January to March 2018 181 376 computers in Japan have launched software for mining without the knowledge of their owners, while over the same period 2017 of such cases was only 767.
Japanese authorities are counting on international help in solving this problem. In may, a senior representative of the Agency for financial services said:
Japan cannot deal with problem alone. To combat money laundering it is not enough to restrict the allowed operations to internal transfers or increase monitoring. It would be better if the countries Big twenty have taken the same steps to prevent criminal activity.
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