X-Industry

Research published by Chainalysis shows that nation-state cyber actors are leading an unprecedented expansion in the use of public distributed ledgers to orchestrate cyberattacks.  Analysts recorded a 440% year-on-year surge in what the industry terms "blockchain dead drop" (BDD) techniques. In these schemes, threat actors insert malicious commands and routing instructions straight into public ledger records and automated smart contracts.[1]

Conventional attack infrastructure relies on centraliz

Google’s Threat Intelligence Group (GTIG) has warned that at least two hacking groups are exploiting public blockchains to conceal and control malware, using a technique called “EtherHiding” that turns decentralized ledgers into resilient command-and-control (C2) infrastructure.  GTIG reports it has observed the North Korean (DPRK) threat actor UNC5342, also known as BeaverTail, employing EtherHiding since February 2025, possibly the first known instance of a nation-state group using the method.