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The Biden administration is preparing to issue a series of actions, including sanctions, to make it harder for hackers to profit from ransomware attacks through the use of digital currency, as first reported by the the Wall Street newspaper Friday.
According to Newspaper, the Treasury Department plans to impose these new sanctions as early as next week. The sanctions would target specific cryptocurrency traders and exchanges, hoping to deter exchanges from processing those transactions when they are made. The department will also issue new guidelines for businesses regarding the risks they take in complying with ransomware payment claims. The Treasury Department declined to comment.
These proposed measures would be the Biden administration’s most important step in dealing with the wave of ransomware attacks that has only grown in scale and frequency over the past year. In May, one of America’s largest 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 get the pipeline back up and running. Earlier this month, Howard University closed its doors after a ransomware attack disrupted the school’s computer and technology services.
In May, President Biden signed an executive order making it easier for government and private sector companies to share information in the wake of cyber attacks. The ordinance also required government agencies to deploy multi-factor authentication services in their systems.
The Biden administration is expected to release new anti-money laundering and terrorist financing rules later this year to restrict the use of cryptocurrency for payments in ransomware attacks.
Updated 9/17/21 4:38 PM ET: Noted that the Treasury Department declined to comment.
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