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Two Iranians who reportedly helped exchange Bitcoin ransom payments in Iranian rial on behalf of malicious Iranian cyber-actors were captured while their Bitcoin addresses were identified by the US Treasury Department (OFAC). This serves as an important reminder that Bitcoin is not anonymous, but is pseudonym and can be used to track transactions.
The money comes from the SamSam ransomware scheme, which has targeted over 200 known victims, including corporations, hospitals, universities and government agencies, in the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada since 2015. Malicious actors held the data hostage of their victims in to redeem the ransom, paid in bitcoins. The two identified bitcoin addresses (149w62rY42aZBox8fGcmqNsXUzSStKeq8C and 1AjZPMsnmpdK2Rv9KQNfMurTXinscVro9V) connected to this scheme have reported seeing more than 7,000 bitcoin transactions through various cryptocurrency exchanges to exchange about 6,000 BTCs in Iranian rial. The OFAC makes it clear, however, that not all these funds derive from the SamSam scheme.
Presumably, the two addresses belong to Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan, who were "at the center of the success of the SamSam ransomware program", according to the OFAC. This is also the first time that the Office publicly attributes cryptographic addresses to individuals, and warns: "Regardless of whether a transaction is denominated in a digital currency or traditional fiat currency, OFAC compliance obligations are the same. " The version also adds, "As a result of today's action, people who undertake transactions with Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyan may be subject to secondary penalties."
Undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker said: "The Treasury is targeting digital currency exchangers that have allowed Iranian cyber-actors to profit from the extortion of digital redemptions from their victims […] We are publishing digital currency addresses to identify illicit actors operating in the digital currency space ".
The term "pseudonymy", often used to describe Bitcoin's modus operandi, derives from the pseudonym, which means "false name". This means that you are simply using a false name that can be traced back to you, as you are not completely anonymous ("unnamed"). In the original Bitcoin white paper, Bitcoin users were advised to use a new address for each transaction to prevent transactions from being linked to a common owner. However, there are still ways to track these transactions. Many cryptocurrencies (the so-called coins of privacy) exist for the sole reason of "correcting" the pseudonymy, as it is often seen as a weakness of Bitcoin, with the most popular example of Monero.
Even this is not the first time that the United States has repressed criminal criminals: only recently a crypto trader has received 15 months in prison for embezzlement of over 1.1 million dollars of Bitcoin and Litecoin.
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