Director William Burns stated during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit that the CIA is working on cryptocurrency projects after the fight against ransomware attacks was brought up.
CIA is working on cryptocurrency projects
Director William Burns remarked that the CIA acknowledges it is working on cryptocurrency projects, putting an end to the speculations.
The CIA’s role in the fight against ransomware attacks was brought up by Director William Burns. He said that his predecessor began a number of crypto-related ventures. More course, hundreds of conspiracy theories arose on social media, with claims ranging from Tom Hanks being a pedophilia kingpin to the CIA inventing Bitcoin and much more.
Director William Burns stated during the Wall Street Journal’s CEO Summit that the agency is working on a few programs to keep track of cryptocurrency.
In response to a question about whether the agency can prevent ransomware attacks from abroad, Burns said that his predecessor put in place a number of projects centered on cryptography and looking at second and third-order consequences, as well as assisting colleagues in other parts of the US government in providing intelligence on what they’re seeing.
Burns didn’t reveal much about who the predecessor was, but the odds were stacked against David Cohen. President Biden appointed Cohen as an interim director from January to March after he worked at the Treasury Department, where he managed the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network.
What is Ransomware all about?
Ransomware is a sort of malicious software that disables computers or networks until payment is made, which is usually made in Monero, a privacy coin, or Bitcoin.
The main oil pipeline Colonial Pipeline, carpet processing giant JBS and the IT business infrastructure were all attacked this year. Ransomware has been designated as a “priority” by the Biden administration, which has stated that it will be addressed through crypto tracking.
Burns was hazy on the actual activity, but he did indicate that it appears the agency is engaged on cryptocurrency projects:
One of the ways to stop and stop ransomware attacks is to access the financial networks that many of these criminal networks use, and that goes along with the digital currency issue.”
