DEFENDING CRIME WITHIN THE WEB3 SPACE

There has been an increase in awareness of crypto crime because web3 users and businesses are investing more in conducting due diligence on new cryptocurrency projects and the safety of their cryptocurrency assets.

Uppsala Security started with a simple mission of protecting Web3 users against threats. To do so, the organisation has been keeping abreast of the continuous development within the web3 space and its incorporation into its services. In the first year of business (2018), the most common types of scams were ICO (Initial Coin Offering) and the first product UPPWard (Browser extension) maintained an extensive list of such scams. However, they then build tools to proactively detect new malicious wallets that exhibited money laundering characteristics (Crypto Analysis Risk Assessment) CARA and (Crypto Analysis Transaction Visualization) CATV that were able to identify newer threats such as Rug Pull, Ponzi schemes, NFT Illicit trade, ransomware flows, etc.

The core business and activities of our Uppsala Security is to provide Intelligence and Services for a safe Web3 experience such as, l Provide information about malicious cryptocurrency wallets related to scams, hacks, phishing, etc. l Provide investigation tools and services to track the stolen funds of the victim in the event of an incident.

A Combined effort by web3 entities (such as Exchanges, Brokers) to conduct due diligence in identifying suspicious cryptocurrency transactions promptly, can thwart the funding of threat actor groups and impede their operations.

There has been an increase in awareness of crypto crime because web3 users and businesses are investing more in conducting due diligence on new cryptocurrency projects and the safety of their cryptocurrency assets. As a result, they also observe threat actors trying new techniques to lure victims.

ROLE OF TECHNOLOGY IN DRIVING BUSINESS GROWTH AND STRENGTHENING RESILIENCE IN THE WEB3 SPACE Technology enables organizations to automate the process of solving an issue faced by several individuals and businesses, thereby enabling organizations to scale. For instance, Uppsala

Key Takeaways

l Technology enables organizations to automate the process of solving an issue faced by several individuals and businesses, thereby enabling organizations to scale.

l Blockchain technology is being increasingly adopted which has created a transition from web2 to web3 space.

l One of the challenges has been the process of freezing the stolen funds as it requires the attention of law enforcement agencies.

l Proactive detection of malicious entities within the web3 space using its tools and its sharing within the community would greatly benefit its sustenance.

Security started with a mission of thwarting crime within the web3 space by proactively identifying malicious cryptocurrency wallets used by threat actors in scams, hacking incidents, and the dark web through our underlying machine learning algorithms.

Blockchain technology is being increasingly adopted which has created a transition from web2 to web3 space. However, within web3 space, the responsibility of ensuring the safety of your assets (such as Ethereum and Bitcoin) falls entirely on oneself which creates a need for solutions. In this matter, technology can help to address the security concerns and enable its mass adoption to ensure a safe web3 experience.

The responsibility for the security of the web3 space lies within every participating entity due to the decentralised nature of the operation. Proactive detection of malicious entities within the web3 space using its tools and its sharing within the community would greatly benefit its sustenance.

Digital and business transformation initiatives

Uppsala Security’s latest project named Chainkeeper is a one-stop interactive marketplace backed by ChatGPT, catered to help and direct web3 users according to their needs.

For instance, if a victim has been hacked and wants to monitor their stolen funds, it will direct them to the monitoring service (CAMS) which tracks the movement of stolen funds. While if a user wants to check an address before transacting, they would be directed toward the organisation’s risk assessment (CARA) and visualization tool (CATV) to look for suspicions associated with the address before transacting. If a user wants to report new suspicious addresses, they would be added for verification by organisation’s analysts and then ingested into its database. This way Chainkeeper intends to be a web3 security marketplace which would be launched in the middle of 2023. A significant contribution to the company in 2022 was building a network of law enforcement agencies who can help to take timely action based on the organisation’s intelligence, which has resulted in some successful thwarting of threat actor cryptocurrency laundering.

Uppsala Security wants to bring its technology to the right audiences and help individuals. For instance, since 2020 they have helped more than 1600 victims related to stolen cryptocurrency. However, one of the challenges has been the process of freezing the stolen funds as it requires the attention of law enforcement agencies. Hence its current step is to continuously increase the network of law enforcement agencies who can help to take timely action of freezing the stolen assets based on its services. n