Many users and trackers of the crypto market are wondering how legal authorities know if criminals are using cryptocurrencies.

Where criminals usually resort to digital currencies due to the difficulty of controlling them by the authorities and government agencies, as they are based on blockchain technology, that is, they are decentralized, and on the other hand, it is difficult to track them, especially in many countries whose security forces have not updated their methods and strategies for tracking digital currencies.

published Blockchain tracking company CipherTrace yesterday provided a useful guide for law enforcement agencies to help them learn about the use of cryptocurrencies in criminal investigations.

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According to CipherTrace, police chiefs and detectives around the world should pay close attention if they don’t find cash for major criminals, which means that, to a large extent, these criminals are using cryptocurrencies.

CipherTrace’s first tip for law enforcement is to check if criminals have installed cryptocurrency wallets on their phones or computers.

As CipherTrace noted:

These can be either digital wallets or cryptocurrency trading platforms that they access through their devices.

This is because everyone who uses digital currencies needs a crypto wallet to send and receive cryptocurrencies.

CipherTrace also recommends that law enforcement check out two-factor authentication apps, since they often provide clues to wallets used by criminals.

Pictures and screenshots are also helpful.

CipherTrace also refers to randomly written words on paper or paper notes, pieces of cloth, and the like.

These words, which are usually 12/24 words, are actually private key phrases or recovery phrases.

Another tip from CipherTrace is to look for hardware wallets which are cryptocurrency wallets that run on small electronic devices.

CipherTrace indicated that these could look like:

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USB devices which are usually stored with [كلمات] Its random accompanying paper is actually the private key of the coins stored on the hardware wallet.

CipherTrace also produces forensic tools that law enforcement can use to track transactions on blockchains.

At the end of the guide, CipherTrace said diligent investigators can use its tools such as the “CipherTrace Inspector” to easily verify the source of funds and discover any link to dark markets or other criminal activity.

According to source CipherTrace, which was originally funded by grants from DARPA and US Homeland Security, has made sales of tracking tools to three US government agencies.

The Internal Revenue Service has spent $1.85 million on CipherTrace services this year and the Securities and Exchange Commission has spent $32,000 on two purchases by the company.

Read:Report: Asian countries top the charts in cryptocurrency adoption

Data relating to those who have purchased tools from CipherTrace may be deleted and not disclosed.

The Justice Department’s Digital Electronic Task Force wrote in a report last week:

The current terrorist use of cryptocurrencies may represent the first raindrops of an upcoming storm of widespread use.

It should be noted that the use of Bitcoin and other alternative digital currencies represents only 0.3% of the total criminal operations in the world according to data from “decomposition“.

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