The U.S. Department of Justice announced that the U.S. and U.K. governments “committed and agreed to increase attention to the illegal use of cryptocurrency and ransomware.” According to the FBI, the high crypto prices make ransomware “very profitable for criminals” to some extent.

Government cooperation focused on illegal use of cryptocurrency

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Friday that Lisa Monaco, the Deputy Attorney General and officials from the Department of National Security and Criminal Division met with British Secretary of the Interior Pritty Patel on Thursday in Washington, DC.

“At their meeting, the two governments discussed close cooperation in dealing with numerous threats to their collective security, including combating terrorism, cybercrime, and illegal finance,” the U.S. Department of Justice explained in detail, adding:

The Deputy Attorney General and the Secretary of the Interior both promised and agreed to increase attention to the illegal use of cryptocurrency and ransomware, and to continue dialogue on emerging national security threats.

The US government has been working hard to combat ransomware attacks. In October, Monaco announced emission An initiative of the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team to resolve and prosecute “criminal abuse of cryptocurrencies, especially crimes committed through virtual currency exchanges, hybrid and rollover services, and money laundering.”

In the same month, President Joe Biden stated that the United States will Bringing together 30 countries Prevent “illegal use of cryptocurrency”.

FBI says ransomware is profitable from “virtual currency valuation”

At a hearing held by the House of Representatives Oversight and Reform Committee last week, Brian Voendran, assistant director of the FBI’s Cyber ??Division, pointed out that high crypto prices are fueling criminal networks and ransomware participants.

The hearing is part of Congress’ investigation into this year’s multimillion-dollar ransomware attacks against major U.S. companies, including Colonial Pipeline Co. and the U.S. branch of JBS Foods.

“In the past six months, we have not seen a decrease in the frequency of reports of ransomware attacks,” Vorndran said, adding:

We attribute it to the simple fact that it is very profitable for criminals. This is partly due to the valuation of virtual currencies and partly due to the fragility of our systems and infrastructure.

Global efforts lead to arrests and seizures

The US government has recently taken action against some ransomware participants. In September, the U.S. Treasury Department Sanctioned As part of the entire government’s efforts to combat ransomware, this is the first cryptocurrency exchange. Suex was allegedly “responsible for money laundering.”

Earlier this month, another cryptocurrency exchange Sanctioned. Chatex is said to facilitate the “financial transactions of ransomware participants.” In addition, two suspected ransomware operators-Ukrainian Yaroslav Vasinskyi and Russian Yevgeniy Polyanin-have been sanctioned for their “participation in perpetuating the Sodinokibi/Revil ransomware incident against the United States.” The Ministry of Justice also confiscated US$6.1 million from Polyanin.

National Network Director Inglis said last week that Polyanin’s arrest was due to cooperation between countries because he was arrested when he crossed the border into Poland. “Cyberspace is a field without borders, so as long as they can reach us, we can reach them,” he thought, and elaborated:

If we hold our allies accountable, we can use jurisdiction in places like Poland and Romania to arrest these criminals, and use existing Western courts to bring them to justice.

October, one Coordinated strike Operations involving Europol, Interpol and the FBI led to the arrest of two “prolific” ransomware operators who were allegedly responsible for ransom demands of up to 70 million euros. Seized cryptocurrency worth 1.3 million U.S. dollars.

What do you think of the cooperation between the United States and other countries to combat the illegal use of cryptocurrency? Please let us know in the comments section below.

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