A UK High Court ordered a proprietary injunction on Bitcoin obtained through a ransomware attack on a Canadian Insurance Company. The proprietary injunction is an order which prevents a person from dealing with their own assets when it is subject to a proprietary claim.

The UK High Court releases documents concerning a ransomware attack on 17th January 2020. According to the documents, over 1,000 computers of the insurance company found unusable because of malware. The attack makes files encrypted and inaccessible. The undefined attackers demanded $1.2 million in bitcoin in exchange for decrypting the data.

The firm’s insurer covered the client’s losses from cybercrime and agreed with the hackers to pay $950,000 in bitcoin to decrypt the files. Later, the insurer received a tool to unlock them 24hours after making the payment. Still, the company needed 10 days to restore all of its systems, including 20 servers and 1,000 desktop computers.

UK High Court Orders Bitfinex to Hand Over Account Data

The company’s insurer hires Chinalysis to track the ransom. Because Chinalysis is a blockchain major analytics firm with a strong reputation for tracking down crypto cybercrimes. The analysis revealed that most of the bitcoin, 96 BTC had been immediately laundered through crypto exchange Bitfinex. Therefore, the court orders Bitfinex to provide any information concerning the holder of the account.

When media approaches Bitfinex regarding the matter, the firm didn’t clarify the status of the ransomers’ bitcoin and what data it submits in the court. Bitfinex states that:

The firm has robust systems in place to allow it to assist low enforcement authorities and litigants in cases such as this. In this case we have assisted the Claimant to trace the stolen bitcoin. And we understand the focus of the Claimant’s attention is no longer on the Bitfinex platform. It now appears Bitfinex is an entirely innocent party.

According to the report published on 25th January 2020 by New Money Review, the case is still ongoing. Darragh Connel, the insurance company’s legal representative said:

Return hearings of the interim injunction will soon heard again in due course before Mr. Justice Bryan who has reserved the case to himself. As this is only the interim stage, my client’s claim will need to be determined after a trial in the Commercial Court in London.

Ransomware attacks are major cybersecurity threat and are becoming increasingly advanced. Earlier reports from December 2019 explains that the Texas-based data center provider CyrusOne paid a $600,000 ransom in BTC in such an attack.

In June 2019, hackers managed to infect the systems of the city council of Riviera Beach with ransomware. The attack encrypts government files. Florida agreed to pay $600,000 worth of bitcoin to the hackers.