Disrupting Ransomware Actors on the Bitcoin Blockchain: A Graph Embedding Approach

Benjamin M. Ampel, Kaeli Otto, Sagar Samtani, Hongyi Zhu, Hsinchun Chen
Last updated on Jun 9, 2026
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Ransomware gangs are often paid in Bitcoin, and those payments leave traces across the blockchain. This study develops a network-analysis method to map ransomware payment flows and pinpoint the key Bitcoin wallets worth targeting for disruption, demonstrating it on a real wallet that moved over $450 million.

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APA Ampel, B. M., Otto, K., Samtani, S., Zhu, H., & Chen, H. (2023). Disrupting Ransomware Actors on the Bitcoin Blockchain: A Graph Embedding Approach. In 2023 IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI). https://doi.org/10.1109/ISI58743.2023.10297290
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ampel2023disrupting,
  title={Disrupting Ransomware Actors on the Bitcoin Blockchain: A Graph Embedding Approach},
  author={Benjamin M. Ampel and Kaeli Otto and Sagar Samtani and Hongyi Zhu and Hsinchun Chen},
  booktitle={2023 IEEE International Conference on Intelligence and Security Informatics (ISI)},
  year={2023},
  doi={10.1109/ISI58743.2023.10297290}
}
Ransomware Bitcoin Blockchain Graph Embedding Cyber Threat Intelligence
Benjamin M. Ampel

Benjamin M. Ampel

Assistant Professor in Computer Information Systems and Director, Center for CyberAI Research (CCAIR)

My research focuses on AI-enabled Cybersecurity, including Cyber Threat Intelligence, Large Language Models, and Phishing Detection.