The report drew attention to the arrests of three individuals in Israel, allegedly engaged in espionage activities for Iran, which involved surveillance, propaganda, and intelligence collection. The intriguing aspect of this case is that the alleged operatives were remunerated using digital assets, a rarely seen method of payment in state-sponsored espionage.

“Digital assets enable cross-border transactions without the need for traditional banking systems, which makes them an ideal tool for covert operations,” TRM Labs stated in their report.

One of the suspects, 28-year-old Dmitri Cohen, was purportedly paid $500 in cryptocurrency for each completed task by Iranian intelligence services. TRM Labs pointed out that these arrests occurred shortly after Nobitex, Iran’s largest crypto exchange, was hacked.

Despite no official confirmation of a connection between the hack and the arrests from Israeli authorities, TRM Labs suggests a potential correlation based on the timing and tactical profile.

The Nobitex hack occurred on June 18, where hot wallets across several networks were emptied, resulting in over $90 million in cryptocurrency asset losses. Notably, the pro-Israeli hacker group Gonjeshke Darande claimed responsibility for this cyber attack.

The group has a history of disrupting and collecting intelligence from Iranian-affiliated platforms. According to TRM Labs, the sequence of events, including Israeli strikes, the Nobitex breach, and the arrests, raises the potential that Israeli cyber units may have exploited the Nobitex data for intelligence purposes.

While direct public evidence linking the Nobitex breach to the espionage investigations is lacking, TRM Labs suggests that the theory aligns with known tactics used by Israeli cyber defense teams and Gonjeshke Darande’s operational history.

At the time of the hack, onchain analytics platform Chainalysis identified Nobitex as a critical player in Iran’s sanctioned crypto space, with numerous ties to illicit activities.

“Nobitex’s role goes beyond being a local exchange; it serves as a vital hub within Iran’s heavily sanctioned crypto ecosystem, providing access to global markets for users isolated from traditional finance,” Chainalysis report stated.

Previous onchain investigations have linked Nobitex to nefarious actors, including ransomware operators affiliated with the IRGC and sanctioned Russian crypto exchanges.

The post Israeli Cyber Units Potentially Involved in $90 Million Nobitex Hack for Espionage, Suggests TRM Labs appeared first on Crypto Market Insights: Dive In with CryptoUpdate.io.

The stolen data is said to contain proprietary information about Google’s software platform and hardware infrastructure that powers the company’s AI supercomputing systems. Ding, a software engineer at Google since 2019, is accused of secretly associating with two Chinese tech firms and intending to aid the Chinese government by misappropriating Google’s trade secrets.

According to court documents, Ding initiated conversations with the CTO of a Chinese tech firm in June 2022. By May 2023, he had privately established an AI and machine-learning company in China, where he served as CEO. The DOJ alleges that Ding pilfered sensitive trade secrets, including information about Google’s custom-built SmartNIC, Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), and Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) chips and systems.

The DOJ further alleges that Ding leaked sensitive software designed for chip communications and future AI innovations to favor the government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC). The DOJ further claims that Ding composed and distributed PowerPoint presentations to his Chinese company’s employees, which cited PRC national policies and talent programs with statements like, “will help China to have computing power infrastructure capabilities that are on par with the international level.”

The FBI is currently investigating the case, and Ding’s guilt has yet to be established. In March 2024, Ding was initially indicted on four counts of trade secrets theft. If convicted on all seven counts of economic espionage and seven counts of trade secrets theft, Ding could face up to 175 years in prison and fines of up to $36.75 million. However, the final fine will be determined based on the US Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

The post Google Employee Accused of Illegally Sharing AI Tech Secrets with China appeared first on Crypto Market Insights: Dive In with CryptoUpdate.io.