AUSTRAC Releases Two New Guides To Help Battle Cybercrimes

Two new guides have been released by the Australian Financial Compliance Enforcement Agency (AUSTRAC) to make it easier to spot when crypto is being used for suspicious reasons, or when a person is being forced to pay crypto to curators of ransomware.

AUSTRAC acknowledged that it could be harmful to debank crypto customers with only suspicions to go on. However, AUSTRAC noted that with the growing acceptance and adoption of crypto in communities comes a major increase in cybercrime.

AUSTRAC stated that “Cyber-enabled crime is an increasing threat to Australians. According to the Australian Cyber Security Center (ACSC), 500 ransomware attacks were reported in the 2020-21 financial year.”

The new guides that were released will not only make it easier to spot criminal cyber activities, but will also make it much easier to report these crimes to AUSTRAC.

The CEO of Blockchain Australia welcomed these new guides by stating that “Open dialogue, pro-active guidance and strong relationships between government and industry are necessary to ensure businesses can identify and report behavior that puts Australians at risk of harm.”

Some of the points AUSTRAC emphasized when it comes to identifying someone trying to pay ransom includes impatience over the speed of a transaction, sudden large transactions from new businesses in crypto as well as transfers that include a users’ entire holdings will have no account activity afterward.

Austrac urged traditional financial institutions to stay away from debanking customers as that has been an ongoing issue in the local crypto sector that could have major consequences if the person was wrongfully accused of being a criminal.