Blockchain research firm Chainalysis has launched a 24/7 hotline for crypto-related crime victims.
The new online service will provide support for organisations that’ve been targeted by crypto-related cyber attackers or ransomware demand.
Upon contacting the website, victims will be paired with a team of Chainalysis investigators who’ll attempt to trace and label the stolen funds. If said funds are found to have been transferred or stolen, the team will then help with liaising with law enforcement and an ‘asset recovery council’ to retrieve them.
Through such rapid response actions, it is hoped that criminals will have less time to cash out stolen funds, which will then make it easier for law enforcement to catch them, where from there, a full recovery is more likely to take place.
As the hotline service is separate from Chainalysis’s main analytics service, those seeking to use its services don’t have to be existing customers.
The need for such a service is at an all-time high, as reports state that $731 million (in crypto payments) was acquired by ransomware actors across 2021, with 2022 forecast to generate an even larger figure.
