Australia-based blockchain and cryptocurrency projects have exploded.  Some of these come with enormous potential while there are those that are not worth the time. 

Arbinja, NSW Police stated, “The use of cryptocurrency among criminal groups is advancing definitely,” “It’s not going anywhere.”

A 56-year-old man saw that about 100,000 units XRP has been transferred without his authorization out from his cryptocurrency account.  This loss happened after he was locked out of his account with the exchange for a two-day period in Mid-January.  The perpetrator dealt with the whole thing in perfect timing. Although the value of the XRP have fallen down, the value would still amount to AUD 65,000 per details from the exchange.

Crypto-exchanges continue to be an attractive target for the criminals, and there is a long list of platforms that have suffered the attack.  To the users, it translated that even if they do not lose their login credentials they can still risk losing their funds.

The private keys can be printed, and they can be stored in safe and secure hardware wallets.

Even in cases where the police are going to recover the device that holds the stolen funds, it is going to be impossible to recover the cryptocurrency without having the seed phrase or passcode. While there are some Australian states it is mandatory for the suspect to disclose the password of an account they need to disclose it at the court’s discretion; however, no such facility is applicable for New South Wales.

In the case of the 56-year-old man, the police managed to recover the hardware wallet.  Despite without the password, they will not be able to move ahead in the investigation process. These hardware wallets come with several cryptographic protections and several other safeguards.  They are set in a way to wipe itself automatically after set numbers of incorrect password attempts. When this happens, the recovery seed is the only way to get the password.

A bill known as the Assistance and Access Bill 2018 is being debated under the legislation and this bill is focused on enabling the state to compel access to encrypted text by the company.  Those who are refusing the penalty per the bill would be subject to 10 years in prison for not disclosing the password to access the device. Australian Lawmakers are currently debating on legislating this bill.

It is predicted that every kind of communication between organized criminals and the terrorist groups will be encrypted by the year 2020. This bill is considered important because criminal groups can move funds quickly using this platform.