Last week, Israel targeted the digital cash flow of Hamas by seizing dozens of wallets associated with the Islamist group in the Gaza Strip.
An intelligence activity applied to the digital world that demonstrates two novelties, also valid for the European and Italian scenario: the role that cryptocurrencies are assuming for political and geo-political issues and “the importance of having highly specialized intelligence sectors in Italy with ad hoc functions, such as the Israeli ones”, as explained by Michele Colajanni, professor at Unimore and among the best known experts in cyber issues.
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The seizure of Hamas accounts
Hamas, blacklisted as a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union, has long used digital currencies to circumvent Western sanctions. The group uses historically difficult to track cryptocurrencies to raise funds and transfer them across borders using a digital wallet system.
On Wednesday, the office of the Ministry of Defense of Israel for Counter-terrorism financing announced it had seized some digital wallets linked to Hamas in late June, in what is the first and most aggressive action against the terrorist group’s efforts in cryptocurrency. The move came after Minister Gantz signed an administrative order authorizing the kidnappings on June 30.
Various sources have reported that they are about 70 portfolios seized, “Activity possible with a refined intelligence and account tracking system”, explained Paolo Dal Checco, IT forensic expert.
Hamas, which suffered significant losses during the 11 days of fighting with Israel in May, is now attempting to reorganize itself by raising funds through virtual currencies, such as bitcoins: “It tries to bypass the conventional banking system,” reported Israeli television channel Keshet 12.
In June, the Wall Street Journal wrote that “there has definitely been a spike” in cryptocurrency donations to the organization, quoting an official of the group: “Part of the money is used for military purposes to defend the fundamental rights of Palestinians.”
The bills weren’t alone bitcoin, the most common and well-known digital currency, but also in ethereum and even dogecoin, a currency that became popular after Elon Musk devoted his attention to it.
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The geopolitical role of cryptocurrencies
In the past, cryptocurrencies have played a role in the relationship between states, but the phenomenon is certainly accelerating. In 2016 a terrorist group from the Gaza Strip has asked for bitcoin donations via Twitter and Telegram: the campaign was called Jahezona and initially raised only 500 euros; much better in 2018, when he received 15 donations, two of which were worth $ 289,273 and $ 123,021.
According to an analysis by Chainanalysis, it has already been 7 years since terrorist groups, in particular the Syrian ones, are financed with cryptocurrencies. And while this isn’t their main source of funding, it’s growing in importance.
According to the FBI, the North Korea It would have used a native hacker group, called Lazarus, to finance itself through ransomware attacks (with the famous Wannacry virus) in 2017, raising $ 2 billion in cryptocurrencies. The government has always denied these accusations, while the US accuses Korea of using bitcoins to launder dirty money and also circumvent international sanctions.
For some time, including through President Biden, the United States has accused the Russia to give the criminals free port of ransomware. And in the new cybersecurity strategy launched by the White House they are trying to make cryptocurrency payments more traceable, to fight cybercriminals. A first, important result was obtained recovering part of the money paid for the Colonial Pipeline case.
Finally, cryptocurrencies are rising to a geopolitical factor also in the light of China’s push for its own digital currency governmental (instead hindering decentralized cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin on several occasions), while similar interest is registered by Europe (for a digital euro) and the United States.
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