The Bitfury Group announced that it has partnered with India’s Strategic Advisory Firm HumanSTAR* to deploy Bitfury’s Crystal analytics platform across Indian Law Enforcement Agencies, Forensics Labs and Financial Institutions.
Despite the many advantages of Crypto assets like Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc, they are also one of the most valuable digital assets to be stolen in the last decade. Not only that, due to the private nature of Crypto assets, they are demanded as payments by hackers, scammers and many ransomware.
While the cumulative value of usage of Crypto assets in wrong doings is relatively much lower than other means of transactions like bank, credit card frauds, but it is still significant. Rouge states like North Korea have been known to accumulate Bitcoins acquired by such means.
Despite the privacy and pseudonymity that public blokchains offers, their public ledgers can leave a digital trail that eventually allows the capture of offenders. While the developed countries have been able to tackle crypto crimes efficiently, we have very little information about the capability of Indian regulators.
How Crypto Forensics Tool Helps
Crypto forensics tools run analytics on public blockchains to determine the movement of funds and eventually track down the funds at the time of being exchanged or cashed out. One such tool was created by Bitfury, known as Crystal Blockchain.
Crystal is a blockchain investigative tool that provides a comprehensive view of the public blockchain ecosystem. It was designed for law enforcement and financial institutions and uses advanced analytics and data scraping to map suspicious transactions and related entities.
Crystal is available as a SaaS, API, or as an on-premise installation.
In the recent Twitter Hack, the perpetrators acquired around $100k worth of Bitcoins, which are being tracked by Crystal as well.
The recent hack of Cashaa’s 336 bitcoins raises concerns about why such a tool is not present in the hands of the law enforcement agencies.
HumanStar Brings Crystal to India
HumanSTAR* works with Global Agencies, Indian Law Enforcement & Financial Institutions to understand the state of India’s readiness in dealing with Blockchain enabled Cryptocurrency issues, including crimes.
The company has a specialized team to analyze transactions on the public blockchain, especially with the impending scams that various State Police and Central Agencies are struggling to deal with in high end Crypto Forensics.
They aim to strengthen our Crypto Forensics & Investigative Practice by initiating the conversation with Indian Law Enforcement Agencies & Forensics Labs.
HumanStar says, “Large strides have been made recently via our partnership with Begin India Think Tank & executing their successful closed-door event attended by key leadership of Investigative Agencies, Forensics Labs at UN Headquarters India. United Nations Technology Innovation Labs partnered with us, chaired by Dr. Subramanian Swamy, Member of Parliament, BJP & globally noted Economist.”
“We at Crystal analytics are proud to partner with HumanSTAR* as they work to improve the cryptocurrency compliance standard for India’s Financial institutions & Law Enforcement.”
– Marina Khaustova, CEO of Crystal Blockchain
“Technology has pushed the boundaries & critical importance of transaction analysis platforms by exponential commercialization of blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption. HumanSTAR* is committed to providing Indian Law Enforcement Agencies and Financial Institutions, with the first forensic tool available in India, to counter the increasing case of Crypto Crimes through the identification of illicit and illegal transactions.”
– Mohammad Shahabuddin, CEO of HumanSTAR*
A forensics tool in the hands of Law enforcement can speed up the investigation of cryptocurrency hacks and movement of digital currencies across the network.
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