Did Russians Use Bitcoin to Fund The US Elections Hack?

By Kapil Gauhar

Russians have been indicted for hacking the 2016 US elections using bitcoin to fund their operations.

According to recent news, Russian hackers have found a novel use of bitcoin that no other hackers have come up with– to hack the democratic elections of a country. Russians have been accused of hacking the 2016 US elections. The indictment that released just a few days ago clearly indicates that a dozen intelligence officers who have been identified, hacked the email accounts and computer networks of the US Democratic Party. This also included the accounts of the presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

The charges against these intelligence officers were of laundering money under an act of conspiracy. The indictment stated that the defendants “conspired to launder the equivalent of $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.”

During a press briefing, deputy U.S. Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said, “In an effort to pay for their efforts around the world … the defendants paid for it with cryptocurrency.” In addition to the bitcoin, the indictment stated that the defendants also used other currencies including the US dollar although they mainly used bitcoin to buy servers and register the domains. They also made several other payments to further their hacking activities.

However, bitcoin is far from the most natural choice to use the money for transactions by concealed manners. Tracing the payment transactions on the bitcoin blockchain is possible. That said, hackers still prefer using bitcoins to its competitors as it is easier to spend this virtual currency around the world than the others such as Monero and Zcash.

In this regard, the indictment also explains, “In addition to mining bitcoin, the Conspirators acquired bitcoin through a variety of means designed to obscure the origin of the funds. This included purchasing bitcoin through exchanges, moving funds through other digital currencies, and using pre-paid cards. They also enlisted the assistance of one or more third-party exchanges who facilitated layered transactions through digital currency exchange platforms providing heightened anonymity.”