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According to the non-profit organization’s report: Identity Theft Resource CenterThe number of online attacks against small businesses increased by 28% in 2023. But this year, hackers have fallen back on their old habits and started once again targeting large, data-rich organizations that hold large amounts of cash and digital assets.
According to a recent study by the University of Oxford based on the World Cybercrime Index (WCI) cybercrime threat score, cybercriminals from the top 10 countries in 2024 carried out 20 significant hacks in the year 2024, with Russia (58.39) and Ukraine leading the way. (36.44), China (27.86), USA (25.01), Nigeria (21.28), Romania (14.83), North Korea (10.61), UK (9.01), Brazil (8.93), and India (6.13).
In May alone, there was a series of large-scale hacks involving digital assets.
Russian-speaking hacker group RansomHub has launched a historic hack of Christies, a leading auction house with global sales revenue of $6.2 billion in 2023. Experienced extortion hackers also took credit for hacking Frontier Communications, which provides internet services through more than eight partners. That’s more than 25 U.S. states that reported $5.75 billion in revenue in 2023.
Christie’s, owned by French billionaire Francois Pinault (owner of Kering, which has dedicated Web3 and Metaverse teams), sells NFTs and is said to have sold one of the most expensive NFTs, Beeple’s “Everydays,” for $69.5 million. there is. The cyberattack on Christie’s was carried out by RansomHub ahead of New York auction week, which saw $922 million worth of art auctioned off after Christie’s mistakenly exposed location data for hundreds of consigned works last year. RansomHub is attempting to shake up Christie’s, threatening to auction off the “sensitive personal information” of at least 500,000 of its high net worth customers to the highest bidder on the dark web.
We don’t want to minimize RansomHub’s hacking achievements, but the biggest hack in May was by the infamous cybercrime group ShinyHunters. ShinyHunters has topped numerous hack lists since 2020, including Banco Santander on May 30th. ShinyHunters is one of the biggest hacks in history. In terms of global victims; The group hacked more than 500 million (560 million to be exact) from a trove of sensitive user information, including names, addresses, email addresses, phone numbers, ticket sales and event details, order information, and partial payment cards. I did. Data from Ticketmaster/Live Nation, the world’s largest event ticket seller, selling for $500,000 on the dark web. Ticketmaster/Live Nations controls 70% of ticket sales and is the subject of a Justice Department antitrust lawsuit that could lead to a breakup of the entertainment giant to allow for more competition and give smaller players a larger slice of the ticket sales market. .
Ticketmaster sells concert tickets in exchange for digital assets and offers NFT ticketing on the Flow blockchain. Token gate sales are compatible with tokens issued on Ethereum and stored in Dapp wallets such as MetaMask or Coinbase. Jennifer Lopez was selling token sale tickets at his Ticketmaster for the ‘THIS IS ME…’ event on May 31st. The ‘LIVE’ tour was suddenly canceled.
Such hacks are potentially problematic for digital asset owners as they could lead to further cybercrime in the future and potentially sensitive taxpayer personal information could fall into the hands of tax officials. The Australian government, part of the Joint Headquarters for Global Tax Enforcement (J5), announced that it was working with Ticketmaster and the FBI “to better understand the case.”
Guy Ficco, director of criminal investigations at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), reported an “increase” in tax evasion involving “purely cryptocurrency tax crimes.” As a result, the IRS has reminded taxpayers that they must generally report all income on their tax returns, including income earned from digital asset trading, which could include selling NFTs or scalping token gate event tickets.
As part of its Dirty Dozen campaign, the IRS is warning wealthy individuals about three tax traps designed for them by dishonest promoters and shady tax practitioners, including improper art donation deductions and NFTs. The IRS also said it will increase audit efforts for high-income taxpayers, large partnerships, corporations and digital asset accounts in 2024.(11)