[mech422]

>>If crypto disappeared from the world today, the only thing that would change is cybercrime would reduce by at least half...maybe more hehe

Yeah - cuz no one hacked banks, cut fraudulent POs, or any of the other scams before crypto. It used to be said banks wouldn't report or prosecute hacks for fear losing public trust, so how common it was is speculation.

That was a cheap shot for an otherwise interesting post :-P

P.S. My favorite 'bank hack' was the coder that changed a banks interest calculations to deposit all the factions of pennies of calculated interest to accounts he controlled. Because it was less then a penny, the bank couldn't account for it and he had something like $4 million before he was caught. After that, we had to start using accumulator buckets for calcing the interest..

edit: s/would/wouldn't/

[neRok]

> Yeah - cuz no one hacked banks, cut fraudulent POs, or any of the other scams before crypto.

OP was probably referring to attacks such as ransomware, because if you don't have an anonymous way to receive payment, then there is less incentive to do the crime in the first place.

[mastax]

The earliest ransomware allowed using pre-paid cash cards to pay the ransom.

It seems that all (?) of them have moved to crypto only, though. Take that as you will.

[mech422]

yeah - the phone scammers seem to like gift cards...

[mech422]

Yeah - I know...I'm just pointing out that's not the only type of cybercrime. High value/High dollar hacks happened before crypto, and they'll happen after crypto...

Probably the biggest factor in the recent ransomware attacks has been the 'hacking as a service' sites that have been popping up for everything from botnets to ransomware. You can literally sign up with services that provide all the code and infrastructure required!

edit: There wasn't really less incentive, there was just different types of hacking. like hacking a companies accounting system and creating a vendor account for yourself..so you got paid, automatically every month.