There has been a violent increase in the number of attacks made on various cryptocurrency exchanges and protocols as of late, with the more infamous ones being centred around the likes of PancakeBunny, BurgerSwap, JulSwap and so on. While these ones had been based on flash loan exploits, ransomware-based attacks have increased in volume as well, prompting a response from U.S senators.
Various senators in the United States are now calling for more restrictions and regulations with regards to various cryptocurrencies after the occurrence of 2 major attacks that utilized ransomware. A couple of Intelligence Committee senators have therefore given the idea of having lawmakers take measures in order to monitor and regulate cryptocurrencies with more rigidity and seriousness.
Ransomware attacks
The abovementioned ransomware attacks had been carried out on JBS and Colonial Pipeline. As a result, Colonial had been forced to pay the hackers a whopping amount of over $4 million (all paid in BTC). JBS may or may not have paid the hackers, as its status on the subject remains unknown as of this point in time.
JBS had additionally stated that the ransomware-based attack had come from somewhere in Russia via a group of criminals likely stationed there. The FBI has reason to believe that a group of potential suspects known as Darkside may have ties to Russia and that it may, in fact, be this same group that had conducted the attack.
Senator Roy Blunt has thus stated that cryptocurrencies should not have the option to function behind closed doors, so to speak, as the industry has become a key target for hackers all over the world. The lack of universal regulatory policies would hence make it easy for criminals to successfully conduct attacks on various cryptocurrencies, which has been observed throughout the previous decade.
Limiting BTC might not work
In the wake of these attacks, many regulators and authorities would like nothing more than to ban cryptocurrencies completely. A former official of Barack Obama’s administration by the name of Michael Daniel had stated that if the crypto industry really wants to be taken seriously, then it would have to become a bit more mature and universally recognized by lawmakers.
As such, it might not be a good idea to have BTC payment be restricted or impose increased regulations within the United States, as measures such as this would probably not have any tangible effect on slowing down the ransomware attacks. Also, most of these attacks and transactions tend to be conducted overseas, so tightening regulations within the U.S itself would not make too much sense. Besides, individuals have various methods through which criminal activities can be carried out, including the very anonymous XMR (Monero).
