Hackers Sell Data of 129 Million Russian Car Owners for Bitcoin

The major cryptocurrency, Bitcoin (BTC), continues to be actively used for illicit activity. Anonymous hackers have taken the data of over 129 million Russian car owners to expose it on the darknet in exchange for cryptocurrency.

The leaked information includes the full names, addresses, passport numbers and other data belonging to millions of Russian car drivers, Russian news agency RBC reported May 15.

The stolen data is claimed to be leaked from the registry of Russia’s patrol jurisdiction, the General Administration for Traffic Safety of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia. The authenticity of data has reportedly been confirmed by an employee of a local car sharing company.

The leaked data is being sold for cryptocurrency, RBC said, citing an original report by local publication Vedomosti. As such, the full version of the database costs 0.3 BTC, which amounts to about $2,900 as of press time. The hackers also offered to buy some “exclusive” data for 1.5 BTC ($14,400), the report notes.

Cryptocurrencies are being increasingly used for illicit activity on darknet markets. According to Chainalysis — a New York-based blockchain analytics firm — the volume of darknet markets’ crypto flows doubled in 2019 for the first time in four years.

Cybercriminals often sell stolen data on the darknet for almost nothing or even give it away for free. In mid-April 2020, hackers were selling over 500,000 accounts of popular video conferencing platform Zoom for less than a penny each.

In March, cryptocurrency fund Trident Crypto Fund suffered a major security breach, resulting in the theft of 266,000 usernames and passwords.