Bitcoin: Russian Hackers' Preferred Currency Posted by Association of Vermont Credit Unions on 10:38 AM

According to an American Banker article, bitcoin was the currency of choice among the Russian intelligence officers indicted for hacking offenses related to the 2016 presidential campaign. The conspirators primarily used the virtual coins when buying servers, registering domains and making other payments related to the cyber breaches, according to the indictment. Many of the transactions were processed by U.S. companies.

The defendants laundered the equivalent of over $95,000 through a web of transactions structured to capitalize on the perceived anonymity of cryptocurrency.

The 12 intelligence officers indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller are members of the GRU, a Russian intelligence agency. They are accused of stealing usernames and passwords of volunteers in Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign, including its chairman, John Podesta. They also hacked into the computer networks of the Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in an operation starting around March 2016.

Read the full article on American Banker.