US Ministry of Justice founds Task Force to combat cryptocurrency ransomware

Von Krypto News Österreich

The United States continue to consider taking further measures in terms of the growing crypto room. In the most recent undertaking, the Ministry of Justice has decided to set up a task force to prevent Hacker from using the exchange of digital assets for ransomware attacks.

ransomware on stock exchanges

like reported The aim of the new team is to aim at an infrastructure that enables hackers to exploit their victims financially. Typically, this happens by frozen the data of a victim and requested a ransom payment - often using cryptocurrency.

Lisa Monaco - Deputy General Prosecutor of the United States - believes that the exchange of digital assets can play a role.

"Cryptocurrency exchanges want to be the banks of the future," says Monaco. "We have to make sure that people can have trust if they use these systems."

Monaco has reason to concern. Last month, the US Ministry of Finance decided to sanction The Czech Stock Exchange "Suex" to facilitate ransom payments.

The Ministry of Justice has also started a new initiative for cyber fraud, which from state contractors demand to report hacker attacks and security gaps. Otherwise, said Monaco, there will be serious consequences:

"We will get very high fines. This is an instrument that we need to ensure that the dollars of taxpayers are used effectively."

use crypto for ransomware attacks

The new team in the department is part of the increasing war of the United States against ransomware attacks. These crimes have gone up in the country in recent years, with over $ 400 million lost in 2020 through ransomware payments. This is more than four times the loss in 2019.

cryptocurrencies play a partial role. Due to the peer-to-peer and decentralized character of blockchain networks such as Bitcoin, payments are uncensable and irreversible. This makes them helpful for cybercriminals without their payments being identified or stopped.

It is also not just Bitcoin: Data protection -promoting coins such as Monero are also used to make these payments easier. Two months ago, John Oliver intentionally made himself funny about Monero Gastronomy to cybercriminals in his advertising.

However, the use of cryptocurrency for financial crime can be overrated. Data shows these illegal activities less in 2020 1% of crypto transactions. Only a

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