Cybersecurity researchers found 18 malicious Android lending apps in the Google Play Store, which were downloaded more than 12 million times.
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Cryptocurrency has become synonymous with digital anonymity, but 27-year-old mathematician Sarah Meiklejohn has made a revolutionary discovery that upends basic assumptions about Bitcoin’s privacy. Her research changed the perception of cybersecurity, fueled a major police investigation, and shattered the illusion that cryptocurrency transactions were untraceable.
Using the Bitcoin blockchain, Sarah Meiklejohn discovered patterns that allow users to be tracked and identified, setting new standards for cybersecurity. Her research debunked the myth that cryptocurrency is the ideal vehicle for anonymous transactions and showed that blockchain can act as a more transparent ledger than traditional financial systems.
She made hundreds of Bitcoin transactions, buying various goods and services and carefully tracking them through the blockchain. This allowed her to develop methods for clustering and identifying the owners of addresses used in transactions. Using these techniques, she was able to track how large sums of bitcoins moved between addresses, thus revealing connections between users and services, including those used for illegal activities.
Micklejohn’s unique blockchain analysis method showed that transactions could be traced even if the addresses were pseudonyms. Her findings helped solve crimes related to cryptocurrency theft and illegal transactions.
Sarah Meiklejohn changed the cryptocurrency paradigm by proving that Bitcoin’s anonymity is not absolute. Her research ushered in a new era of cybercrime justice, where digital transactions can be traced back to real people and the real story behind them.
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