Investigating Cryptocurrencies

Investigating Cryptocurrencies

by Nick Furneaux
Released June 2018
Publisher(s): Wiley
ISBN: 9781119480587

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Book description

Investigate crimes involving cryptocurrencies and other blockchain technologies

Bitcoin has traditionally been the payment system of choice for a criminal trading on the Dark Web, and now many other blockchain cryptocurrencies are entering the mainstream as traders are accepting them from low-end investors putting their money into the market. Worse still, the blockchain can even be used to hide information and covert messaging, unknown to most investigators.

Investigating Cryptocurrencies is the first book to help corporate, law enforcement, and other investigators understand the technical concepts and the techniques for investigating crimes utilizing the blockchain and related digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Ethereum.

  • Understand blockchain and transaction technologies  
  • Set up and run cryptocurrency accounts
  • Build information about specific addresses
  • Access raw data on blockchain ledgers
  • Identify users of cryptocurrencies
  • Extracting cryptocurrency data from live and imaged computers
  • Following the money

With nearly $150 billion in cryptocurrency circulating and $3 billion changing hands daily, crimes committed with or paid for with digital cash are a serious business. Luckily, Investigating Cryptocurrencies Forensics shows you how to detect it and, more importantly, stop it in its tracks.

Table of contents

  1. Cover
  2. Foreword
  3. Introduction
    1. Cryptocurrencies: Coming to a Lab near You
    2. Who Should Read This Book
    3. About the Book's Web Resources
  4. Part I: Understanding the Technology
    1. CHAPTER 1: What Is a Cryptocurrency?
      1. A New Concept?
      2. Leading Currencies in the Field
      3. Is Blockchain Technology Just for Cryptocurrencies?
      4. Setting Yourself Up as a Bitcoin User
      5. Summary
    2. CHAPTER 2: The Hard Bit
      1. Hashing
      2. Public/Private Key Encryption
      3. Building a Simple Cryptocurrency in the Lab
      4. Summary
    3. CHAPTER 3: Understanding the Blockchain
      1. The Structure of a Block
      2. Summary
    4. CHAPTER 4: Transactions
      1. The Concept behind a Transaction
      2. The Mechanics of a Transaction
      3. Extracting JSON Data
      4. Analyzing Address History
      5. Creating Vanity Addresses
      6. Interpreting Ethereum Transactions
      7. Summary
    5. CHAPTER 5: Mining
      1. The Proof-of-Work Concept
      2. The Proof-of-Stake Concept
      3. Mining Pools
      4. Mining Fraud
      5. Summary
    6. CHAPTER 6: Wallets
      1. Wallet Types
      2. Why Is Recognizing Wallets Important?
      3. The Wallet Import Format (WIF)
      4. How Wallets Store Keys
      5. Setting Up a Covert Wallet
      6. Summary
    7. CHAPTER 7: Contracts and Tokens
      1. Contracts
      2. Tokens and Initial Coin Offerings
      3. Summary
  5. Part II: Carrying Out Investigations
    1. CHAPTER 8: Detecting the Use of Cryptocurrencies
      1. The Premises Search
      2. Searching Online
      3. Extracting Private and Public Keys from Seized Computers
      4. Working on a Live Computer
      5. Summary
    2. CHAPTER 9: Analysis of Recovered Addresses and Wallets
      1. Finding Information on a Recovered Address
      2. Analyzing a Recovered Wallet
      3. Inferring Other Data
      4. Summary
    3. CHAPTER 10: Following the Money
      1. Initial Hints and Tips
      2. Transactions on Blockchain.info
      3. Other Explorer Sites
      4. Following Ethereum Transactions
      5. Monitoring Addresses
      6. Summary
    4. CHAPTER 11: Visualization Systems
      1. Online Blockchain Viewers
      2. Commercial Visualization Systems
      3. Summary
    5. CHAPTER 12: Finding Your Suspect
      1. Tracing an IP Address
      2. Tracking to a Service Provider
      3. Considering Open-Source Methods
      4. Accessing and Searching the Dark Web
      5. Detecting and Reading Micromessages
      6. Summary
    6. CHAPTER 13: Sniffing Cryptocurrency Traffic
      1. What Is Intercept?
      2. Watching a Bitcoin Node
      3. Sniffing Data on the Wire
      4. Summary
    7. CHAPTER 14: Seizing Coins
      1. Asset Seizure
      2. Practice, Practice, Practice
      3. Summary
    8. CHAPTER 15: Putting It All Together
      1. Examples of Cryptocurrency Crimes
      2. What Have You Learned?
      3. Where Do You Go from Here?
  6. Index
  7. End User License Agreement

Product information

  • Title: Investigating Cryptocurrencies
  • Author(s): Nick Furneaux
  • Release date: June 2018
  • Publisher(s): Wiley
  • ISBN: 9781119480587