- Australian police decrypted a cryptocurrency wallet backup worth approximately $5.9 million USD.
- The wallet was protected by a coded 24-word seed phrase disguised with extra numbers.
- A data scientist on the police team identified and removed misleading numbers to reveal the correct code.
- The investigation involved a suspect who refused to disclose wallet keys, facing a 10-year penalty for non-compliance.
- Recovered funds are managed by a government taskforce and may be used to support crime prevention programs.
Australian police successfully decrypted a coded cryptocurrency wallet backup holding about $5.9 million USD during an investigation into an alleged organized crime operator. The discovery occurred after law enforcement accessed password-protected notes and an image with seemingly random number sequences on the suspect’s phone.
According to official statements, the numbers were grouped in six sets with over 50 possible combinations. The digital forensics team suspected the data related to a crypto wallet seed phrase—a list of words that serves as a master key to access cryptocurrency. The accused individual refused to provide wallet keys, a refusal punishable by up to 10 years in prison under Australian law.
The breakthrough came when a data scientist from the police team noticed irregularities in the number strings. The officer realized that the suspect had inserted extra numbers at the start of some sequences to confuse anyone trying to unlock the wallet. By removing these initial digits, the expert uncovered the correct 24-word seed phrase needed to access the wallet.
This marked the second time the same data scientist aided law enforcement in recovering crypto assets, having previously helped retrieve more than $3 million USD using another decoding approach. Both recoveries were conducted by the Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce, which controls the seized assets pending court orders.
If the court orders the confiscation of funds, the money will be deposited into a government account managed by the Home Affairs Minister and directed toward crime prevention efforts. The investigation relates to an accused individual who allegedly sold technology products to criminal operators, amassing digital assets through illegal activities.
For more on related security issues, see the report on the “Pixnapping” Android attack that risks exposing cryptocurrency wallet seed phrases.
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