The Evolution of a Parasite: How Carding Adapts to the World of Central Bank Digital Currencies and Becomes a Threat to National Economic Security

[Professor]

Prologue: From Wallet Theft to an Attack on Monetary Sovereignty​

With the proliferation of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by 2030-2035, carding will undergo a quantum leap in evolution. It will cease to be simply a criminal activity targeting private funds and will become a tool for systemic attacks on the national monetary infrastructure. The parasite that fed on the financial system's blood has now learned to attack its nerve centers and immune mechanisms. The threat will shift from the client-bank level to the sovereignty-stability level.

Part 1: A New Ontology of Value: Vulnerabilities in CBDC Architecture​

CBDC isn't just a digital ruble or euro. It's a complex software and financial ecosystem with unique entry points for carding.

1. Programmability and smart contracts as an attack vector:
   • The built-in logic of CBDCs (e.g., spending limits, expiration dates for social benefits) is controlled by code. Carding syndicates hire cryptoanalysts to find vulnerabilities in official smart contracts and wallets. Discovering a bug that allows for limit bypass or transaction duplication becomes a gold mine, threatening the integrity of the entire money supply.
   • Smart Subsidy Attack: Infiltrating supply chains that receive government subsidies in CBDC (e.g., medicines, food) and manipulating smart contracts to crab or divert flows.
2. Two-tier architecture (Central Bank → commercial banks → citizens):
   • Carders focus not on individuals, but on the poor cyber hygiene of commercial intermediary banks . Hacking the API gateway of such a bank, which handles thousands of CBDC transactions, provides access to wholesale flows. The goal isn't to steal 100 CBDC from a card, but to carry out a "digital raid" on the bank's gateway , stealing millions within seconds of detection.
3. Offline functionality and its dark side:
   • The ability to conduct CBDC payments offline (via NFC) is vital, but also a risk. Carders are creating "black zones" : modified POS terminals or smartphones in crowded places that, when touched, simulate offline payments but, in reality, conduct unauthorized debits using previously compromised keys, exploiting the delay in synchronization with the main network.

Part 2: Taxonomy of Emerging Threats: From Mass Fraud to Destabilization​

Carding in the CBDC era is mutating into several dangerous forms.

1. Simulacra Carding:
   • The concept: The creation of completely legitimate, but criminally controlled, digital identities to obtain CBDC. Synthetic identities or real individuals from vulnerable groups ("digital mules") are used, who register to receive government payments, subsidies, and "universal basic income" in CBDC. The funds are legally deposited and then instantly consolidated in criminal wallets. Carding becomes a systematic siphoning off of state funds through legal channels.
2. Flash CBDC Attacks:
   • The gist: Similar to flash loan attacks in DeFi. Using instant, interest-free loans in CBDCs (if such mechanisms are implemented) or by hacking bank APIs, carders simultaneously drain colossal amounts of liquidity from the regional banking system, creating an artificial cash shortage and panic. They then return the funds (or not) with a profit on exchange rate differences or through short selling of related assets. This is an attack on the financial stability of the region.
3. Targeted Supply Chain Attacks:
   • The essence: Intrusion into the digital wallets of key supply chain companies (energy, food). Without stealing funds, carders block or "freeze" their CBDC accounts by exploiting vulnerabilities or attacking control keys, demanding a ransom to unlock them. This is direct blackmail of a country's critical infrastructure , using its own national digital currency as a weapon.
4. "Shadow money supply" and money laundering:
   • The gist: Criminals are creating a parallel system of quasi-CBDCs — stablecoins or tokens on private blockchains, backed by stolen "real" CBDCs and accepted in the shadow economy. This allows not only for money laundering but also for the creation of a criminally controlled monetary system within the state , rivaling the official one in terms of convenience and anonymity.

Part 3: Threat to National Economic Security: Parasite Becomes Predator​

The consequences go beyond financial losses.

1. Undermining trust in the national currency: Massive, publicly successful carding attacks on CBDCs are destroying the currency's main asset — trust. Citizens and businesses are becoming wary of using digital national currencies, returning to cash or cryptocurrencies, which undermines the very purpose of CBDC implementation (control, efficiency, and innovation).
2. Hybrid Warfare Tool: Advanced carding syndicates linked to foreign states or opposition forces are using CBDC attacks for targeted destabilization:
   • Collapse of trust in financial authorities ahead of elections.
   • Disruption of the social benefits system in protest regions.
   • Coordination of attacks on banks in satellite countries to create regional panic.
3. Difficulty of attribution and legal prosecution: CBDC transactions, even traceable ones, can be disguised through complex chains of mixing with legitimate flows or conducted from jurisdictions that do not cooperate in cyberinvestigations. Carding is becoming a "plutocratic" weapon , available to those who can buy the best talent and hide abroad.

Part 4: Defensive Frameworks: A New Paradigm for "Sovereign Cyberfinancial Resilience"​

The fight requires a shift from protecting customers to protecting monetary sovereignty.

1. "Sovereign Anti-Fraud" at the Central Bank level:
   • Establishing a National Cyber-Financial Monitoring Center (NCCFM) within the central bank, which analyzes anomalies in real time across the entire CBDC ecosystem, rather than within individual banks. Using AI to identify patterns characteristic of infrastructure attacks (massive flash transactions, attacks on smart contracts).
2. Security by Design and Digital Ballistic Analysis:
   • Each CBDC unit must have not only a unique digital fingerprint but also built-in behavioral restrictions (preventing the instant transfer of colossal sums without multi-sig confirmation from the central bank). The development of "CBDC forensics" involves analyzing not just transactions, but the execution logic of smart contracts to detect anomalies.
3. Regulatory isolation of critical flows and “digital gold and foreign exchange reserves”:
   • Funds of systemically important enterprises and government funds must be stored in isolated, hardware-protected CBDC "safes" with a special access mode not linked to public APIs.
   • The creation of a strategic "digital gold and foreign exchange reserve" — a reserve of CBDC liquidity in a completely isolated, offline storage facility in the event of a large-scale cyberattack on the online system.
4. International cyber-financial security protocols (CBDC Cyber Defense Pact):
   • Concluding agreements between countries on immediate mutual notification and blocking of digital assets involved in cross-border attacks on CBDCs, and the creation of joint rapid response teams (CERTs for finance).

Epilogue: The Battle for Control of the Nation's Digital Bloodstream​

CBDCs aren't just the next stage in the evolution of money. They represent the transition of money supply from a physical to a purely informational form. And in this informational realm, carding evolves from a blood-sucking parasite into a virus capable of reprogramming the nation's very circulatory system.

The threat has ceased to be a private problem for banks. It has become a matter of national security , on par with protecting power grids or borders. The winner of this new war will not be the one who creates the most convenient digital currency, but the one who can embed absolute resistance to malicious rewriting into its DNA. The future of financial security lies not in fortress walls around money, but in the creation of "smart," self-defending, and sovereign money that can recognize an enemy during an attack and neutralize itself, lest it become a weapon against its own country. Carding has challenged not the economy, but digital sovereignty. The answer to this challenge will determine whether money will remain a tool of the state or become a weapon of those who have learned to crack the code of trust.