Follow the Crypto
From Threat Vector by Palo Alto Networks by Palo Alto Networks and N2K Networks
May 21, 2026 · 36 min · Season 10 · Episode 118
About this episode
Jackie Burns Koven discusses how threat actors use cryptocurrency and blockchain intelligence to fund attacks and launder money.
Every threat actor leaves a financial signature. Ransomware operators, state-sponsored hackers, fraud networks — they all need to move money, and when they do, the blockchain records it permanently. Jackie Burns Koven leads cyber threat intelligence at Chainalysis, where she tracks how criminal and nation-state actors use cryptocurrency to fund attacks, launder proceeds, and pay for the tools and infrastructure that power the underground economy. Before Chainalysis, she worked in the U.S. Intelligence Community on nuclear proliferation. She also serves on the Ransomware Task Force, the cross-sector coalition working to disrupt the financial ecosystem that makes ransomware profitable. In this conversation recorded live at the Links conference in New York, guest host Michael Sikorski, CTO of Unit 42, talks with Jackie about how blockchain intelligence works as a threat intelligence discipline, why open-source cryptocurrency is more exposed than most defenders realize, and what the financial signatures of threat actors can reveal that traditional IOCs cannot. You’ll learn: How blockchain intelligence connects wallets to threat actors, criminal networks, and nation-state operations…
People in this episode
Host: Michael Sikorski
Guest: Jackie Burns Koven
Topics covered
- cryptocurrency
- cyber threat intelligence
- ransomware
- blockchain
- financial signatures
- nation-state actors
Keywords
- blockchain intelligence
- ransomware
- cryptocurrency
- financial signatures
- cyber crime
- nation-state operations
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Chainalysis, U.S. Intelligence Community, Ransomware Task Force, Unit 42
Places: New York, North Korea
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