HomeCryptoCurrencyUS to sanction crypto payments in ransomware attacks

US to sanction crypto payments in ransomware attacks

The United States is establishing more measures to sanction individuals and companies that pay ransoms in cryptocurrencies arising from attacks by ransomware .

The news, although it has not been released from official government sources, has been reported by The Wall Street Journal this September 17, and it is being cited by different media as is the case of the medium UToday .

The note focuses on the possibility that the United States government is preparing a whole group of actions against ransomware that include penalties for payments made in these attacks.

It should be clarified that these types of attacks are based on the hijacking victim information directly on their device. In order for it to regain access to your data, the hackers demand to cancel a certain amount, usually in bitcoins (BTC) or monero (XMR), under the promise that, once the payment is made, the attacker will release the data . Which government entities advise against, since there is no guarantee that what was promised will be fulfilled.

So far the specific sanctions to apply are not clear. However, as the newspaper UToday mentions, the objective of these measures is “to try to dissuade and discourage this type of attack.”

According to a note made by CriptoNoticias about the Ransomwhere platform, which is in charge of analyzing and monitoring this type of attack, by mid-July, the losses caused by these attacks already exceeded 60 thousand bitcoins .

Apparently, the new policies and sanctions against the attacks ransomware , would come to light next week , according to the newspaper UToday .

The US motivation to take these actions

The United States seems to have no shortage of reasons to take action against ransomware . After the Colonial Pipeline case, last March, the United States decided to classify these types of attacks as acts of terrorism, which should be prosecuted as such.

The attack on one of the most important oil pipelines in the southeastern United States affected the distribution of gasoline in different states of the country. Source: EnvatoElement / IndustryAndTravel.

The complications and the series of attacks that the United States has been suffering, led him to raise the discussion on «what to do against ransomware »in the last meeting of the G7 organized last July. There, a document was presented that would seek to create an association between the participating countries to combat these attacks.

These situations have also created controversy among political leaders, who blame the existence of cryptocurrencies for these types of attacks. For example, Representative Bill Foster considered that the United States should have the power to reverse transactions in Bitcoin, something impossible to do due to the very nature of the network of this cryptocurrency.

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Sandra Loyd
Sandra Loyd
Sandra is the Reporter working for World Weekly News. She loves to learn about the latest news from all around the world and share it with our readers.

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