Exclusive: Chainalysis joins cybercrime info-sharing organization
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Chainalysis is officially joining the National Cyber-Forensics and Training Alliance (NCFTA), the company first told Axios — marking the first blockchain analytics firm to join the widely respected cybercrime information-sharing organization.
Why it matters: Because of the borderless nature of cybercrime, law enforcement agencies often rely on overseas partners and industry organizations to quickly track down key evidence about data breaches, ransomware attacks and other cybercriminal activities.
- NCFTA brings both public and private sector organizations together at its in-person coworking spaces. While there, law enforcement agents and private investigators mingle and share classified tips about possible crimes they're looking into.
- As an official member, Chainalysis can now directly discuss these topics with law enforcement.
The big picture: Chainalysis, which studies public blockchain transactions to trace the financing behind cybercrime gangs, has already played an integral role in several law enforcement actions in the last year.
- Most recently, Chainalysis helped law enforcement officials recover more than $30 million worth of crypto stolen during this year's hack of token-based online game Axie Infinity.
What they’re saying: "Not being a full on-site member, we didn't have access to provide the sensitive data from our side or to receive the sensitive data from their side," Erin Plante, Chainalysis' vice president of investigations, told Axios.
- "This way, we're a trusted party to look at the financial institutions' data — or the crypto exchange's data — and also look at it with our data and the law enforcement officers' data," Plante added.
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