The U.S. Treasury Plans To Fight Back Against Ransomware Attacks

Ransomware attacks are becoming a huge problem.

Earlier this year, parts of the nation were rocked by fuel shortages as Colonial Pipeline was hit by a ransomware attack which took some of its systems offline.

Now The United States Department of The Treasury is fighting back against these ransomware attacks.

Sources claim that officials plan to combat ransomware schemes through sanctions targeting the cryptocurrency exchanges and transactions that are linked to ransomware attacks.

Officials believe that this will be better than attacking the entire crypto infrastructure, and that this move will scare other exchanges and actors into compliance with the law.

Take a look:

https://twitter.com/JMC31337/status/1439301544390893582

That’s certainly an option, a better one would be to educate people about the risks of surfing on insecure websites and keep their system/anti-virus/malware protections up to date. We don’t need daddy governments, people learn from their mistakes.https://t.co/t2lZnD8v5L

— stakeval (@stakeval) September 17, 2021

Crypto Briefing confirmed:

Though officials have not commented on the plan, experts suggest that the Treasury aims to create sanctions that target specific actors and wallets rather than the entire cryptocurrency infrastructure.

However, this could involve sanctions against exchanges that have handled ransomware payments. The WSJ suggests that this could “disrupt that firm’s ability to do business” and “spook other cryptocurrency platforms into avoiding such transactions.”

Biden Reportedly Plans ‘Sanctions’ to Combat Crypto’s Role in Ransomware Attacks—Whatever That Means The White House has communicated to the U.S. Treasury to implement strategies to assist in the crackdown on criminal hackers. https://t.co/NXPQJLGHZ3 @BakkupBradley @RuleXRP

— XRP Crypto Quebec "X" #FREE D.A.I @elonmusk (@XRPCryptoQuebec) September 18, 2021

The U.S. Treasury Department is preparing actions to make cryptocurrency use for ransomware payments more difficult. Guidance and fines for businesses who use crypto for ransomware payments will be announced later this year.

Read the full story here: https://t.co/qinRDS21qf pic.twitter.com/NUHBRLvh4P

— INSIDE.COM (@inside) September 17, 2021

The Verge explains:

These proposed measures would be the Biden administration’s most significant move to address the wave of ransomware attacks that have only grown in scale and frequency over the last year.

In May, one of the largest US pipelines, Colonial Pipeline, was taken offline after a ransomware attack. The company paid more than $4 million in ransom to the attackers in order to bring the pipeline back online. Earlier this month, Howard University closed after a ransomware attack interrupted the school’s computer and technology services.

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