The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has announced that the agency is working on a number of projects that focus on cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies “could have a huge impact on anything that comes from ransomware attacks,” he said.
CIA has worked on various crypto projects
CIA Director William Burns announced Monday at the Wall Street Journal CEO summit that the agency is working on “a number of different projects focusing on cryptocurrency.”
When asked by someone in the audience whether the CIA has a grip on cryptocurrencies, Burns said:
I inherited that. My predecessor started [and] had launched a number of different projects focused on cryptocurrencies.
Burn stated that the agency “is trying to investigate second- and third-order consequences as well, and to help our colleagues in other parts of the US government provide solid information about what we are also seeing.”
The CIA director stated that cryptocurrencies “could have a huge impact on anything from ransomware attacks … because one of the ways you can get hold of and deter ransomware attacks is to get into the financial networks that make up so many of these criminal networks use, and that “is also right when it comes to digital currencies.”
The US government has made fighting ransomware a high priority. In June, the Biden administration expanded “Cryptocurrency Analytics to Find and Track Criminal Transactions” as part of its strategy to combat ransomware.
In addition, as part of a nationwide effort to combat ransomware, the Treasury Department has taken action against cryptocurrency exchanges that are “responsible for ransom laundering.” One exchange was sanctioned in September and another in November.
What do you think of the CIA working on a number of crypto-oriented projects? Let us know in the comment section below.
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