Matt Devost

It Takes a Village: How a Community of Researchers Caught an Evasive Crypto Criminal

When an international cryptocurrency exchange suddenly went down for maintenance and never came back online, court appointed trustees were faced with a difficult to solve mystery with regards to what happened and where the money went. What followed was an international investigation supported by numerous LABScon attendees that spanned the globe, led to a raid in a foreign country and a high-stakes capture right out of a thriller.

Get a front row seat to this investigation as we explore the case, the role industry collaboration played in the investigation, technical investigations challenges and workarounds, new legal constructs and how it was ultimately linked to a multi-billion human trafficking, forced labor, pig butchering, and international money laundering gang.

Matt began his career in 1995 hacking into systems for the US Department of Defense and Intelligence Community and over the past twenty-five years has emerged as an established leader in the cyber, global security, and intelligence domains. A successful entrepreneur, he has founded several companies including OODA, DevSec, FusionX & the Terrorism Research Center, played a key leadership role in a handful of successful companies, and served as a Senior Advisor to DoD, a professor at Georgetown and Columbia universities, and is a member of the Black Hat review board.