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Cybercriminals have been exploiting cryptocurrencies to commit various unique financial frauds. Covert cryptomining - which is defined as an unauthorized harnessing of victims' computational resources to mine cryptocurrencies - is one of…
Lightning Network (LN) is a widely-used network of payment channels enabling faster and cheaper Bitcoin transactions. In this paper, we outline three ways an attacker can steal funds from honest LN users. The attacks require dilating the…
Illicit crypto-mining leverages resources stolen from victims to mine cryptocurrencies on behalf of criminals. While recent works have analyzed one side of this threat, i.e.: web-browser cryptojacking, only commercial reports have partially…
This paper provides an overview of how crypto currency and blockchain engineering interacts with the law enforcement. We point out that a large proportion of crypto users are amateur investors and the dominant and the largest segment in…
In shaping the Internet of Money, the application of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) to the financial sector triggered regulatory concerns. Notably, while the user anonymity enabled in this field may safeguard privacy…
Anti-money laundering (AML) regulations play a critical role in safeguarding financial systems, but bear high costs for institutions and drive financial exclusion for those on the socioeconomic and international margins. The advent of…
The Bitcoin transaction graph is a public data structure organized as transactions between addresses, each associated with a logical entity. In this work, we introduce a complete probabilistic model of the Bitcoin Blockchain. We first…
Cross-Chain bridges have become the most popular solution to support asset interoperability between heterogeneous blockchains. However, while providing efficient and flexible cross-chain asset transfer, the complex workflow involving both…
We performed the first systematic study of a new attack on Ethereum that steals cryptocurrencies. The attack is due to the unprotected JSON-RPC endpoints existed in Ethereum nodes that could be exploited by attackers to transfer the Ether…
Since the inception of Bitcoin in 2009, the market of cryptocurrencies has grown beyond initial expectations as daily trades exceed $10 billion. As industries become automated, the need for an automated fraud detector becomes very apparent.…
Security incidents such as scams and hacks, have become a major threat to the health of the blockchain ecosystem, causing billions of dollars in losses each year for blockchain users. To reveal the real-world entities behind the…
As Law Enforcement Agencies advance in cryptocurrency forensics, criminal actors aiming to conceal illicit fund movements increasingly turn to "mixin" services or privacy-based cryptocurrencies. Monero stands out as a leading choice due to…
This paper investigates the stochastic behavior of an n-node blockchain which is continuously monitored and faces non-stop cyber attacks from multiple hackers. The blockchain will start being re-set once hacking is detected, forfeiting…
Mining pools, the main components of the Bitcoin network, dominate the computing resources and play essential roles in network security and performance aspects. Although many existing measurements of the Bitcoin network are available,…
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…
Providers of online marketplaces are constantly combatting against problematic transactions, such as selling illegal items and posting fictive items, exercised by some of their users. A typical approach to detect fraud activity has been to…
Blockchain has widespread applications in the financial field but has also attracted increasing cybercrimes. Recently, phishing fraud has emerged as a major threat to blockchain security, calling for the development of effective regulatory…
In recent years, Ethereum gained tremendously in popularity, growing from a daily transaction average of 10K in January 2016 to an average of 500K in January 2020. Similarly, smart contracts began to carry more value, making them appealing…
The widespread adoption of blockchain technology has amplified the spectrum of potential threats to its integrity and security. The ongoing quest to exploit vulnerabilities emphasizes how critical it is to expand on current research…
We study the real economic activity in the Bitcoin blockchain that involves transactions from/to retail users rather than between organizations such as marketplaces, exchanges, or other services. We first introduce a heuristic method to…