Related papers: Ransomware Payments in the Bitcoin Ecosystem
Detection and analysis of a potential malware specifically, used for ransom is a challenging task. Recently, intruders are utilizing advanced cryptographic techniques to get hold of digital assets and then demand a ransom. It is believed…
Over the past decade, the Bitcoin P2P network protocol has become a reference model for all modern cryptocurrencies. While nodes in this network are known, the connections among them are kept hidden, as it is commonly believed that this…
Cryptocurrency is a novel exploration of a form of currency that proposes a decentralized electronic payment scheme based on blockchain technology and cryptographic theory. While cryptocurrency has the security characteristics of being…
Bitcoins have recently become an increasingly popular cryptocurrency through which users trade electronically and more anonymously than via traditional electronic transfers. Bitcoin's design keeps all transactions in a public ledger. The…
Clients of permissionless blockchain systems, like Bitcoin, rely on an underlying peer-to-peer network to send and receive transactions. It is critical that a client is connected to at least one honest peer, as otherwise the client can be…
A recent spam wave of IP addresses in the Bitcoin P2P network allowed us to estimate the degree distribution of reachable peers in the network. The resulting distribution shows that about every second reachable peer runs with Bitcoin Core's…
File encrypting ransomware increasingly employs intermittent encryption techniques, encrypting only parts of files to evade classical detection methods. These strategies, exemplified by ransomware families like BlackCat, complicate file…
Crypto-ransomware attacks have been a growing threat over the last few years. The goal of every ransomware strain is encrypting user data, such that attackers can later demand users a ransom for unlocking their data. To maximise their…
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency attracting a lot of interest both from the general public and researchers. There is an ongoing debate on the question of users' anonymity: while the Bitcoin protocol has been designed to ensure that the activity…
Cryptocurrencies are considered relevant assets and they are currently used as an investment or to carry out transactions. However, specific characteristics commonly associated with the cryptocurrencies such as irreversibility,…
Cryptocurrencies have gained popularity due to their transparency, security, and accessibility compared to traditional financial systems, with Bitcoin, introduced in 2009, leading the market. Bitcoin's security relies on blockchain…
The rapid evolution of encryption-based threats has rendered conventional detection mechanisms increasingly ineffective against sophisticated attack strategies. Monitoring entropy variations across hierarchical system levels offers an…
Bitcoin is a digital currency and payment system based on classical cryptographic technologies which works without a central administrator such as in traditional currencies. It has long been questioned what the impact of quantum computing…
Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency used worldwide. It provides pseudonymity to its users by establishing identity using public keys as transaction end-points. These transactions are recorded on an immutable public ledger called…
Bitcoin is a popular alternative to fiat money, widely used for its perceived anonymity properties. However, recent attacks on Bitcoin's peer-to-peer (P2P) network demonstrated that its gossip-based flooding protocols, which are used to…
Denial of Service (DoS) attacks are a growing threat in network services. The frequency and intensity of DoS attacks are rapidly increasing day by day. The immense financial potential of the Cryptocurrency market is a prevalent target of…
Many of the recent works on the profitability of rogue mining strategies hinge on a parameter called $\gamma$ that measures the proportion of the honest network attracted by the attacker to mine on top of his fork. These works, see…
Bitcoin, launched in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, established a new digital economy where value can be stored and transferred in a fully decentralized manner - alleviating the need for a central authority. This paper introduces a large scale…
In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto proposed an electronic cash system (bitcoin) that is completely realized by peer-to-peer technology. The core value of this scheme is that it proposes a solution based on Proof-of Work, so that the cash system can…
This paper conducts a comprehensive examination of the infrastructure supporting cryptojacking operations. The analysis elucidates the methodologies, frameworks, and technologies malicious entities employ to misuse computational resources…