US and UK to Join Efforts to Combat Illegal Use of Cryptocurrencies

The US and UK governments met to agree to join forces to combat ransomware and the illegal use of digital assets.

US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco and the US Department of Homeland Security and the Criminal Division of the US Department of Justice met with UK Home Secretary Priti Patel in Washington DC. At the meeting, they discussed the possibility of cooperation between both countries to combat cybercrime, money laundering, terrorist financing and the use of cryptocurrencies to commit other illegal activities.

Earlier, the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reported an increase in the number of phishing attacks with theft of cryptoassets, and this month, the agency warned of an increase in fraud using cryptomats and QR codes. Bryan Vorndran, Assistant Chief of the FBI Anti-Cyber ​​Attacks Department, believes that the growth of the cryptocurrency market is even more attractive to cybercriminals spreading ransomware viruses. On the other hand, the security system of many companies leaves much to be desired, which is what hackers use.

Vorndran mentioned the attack on the Colonial Pipeline fuel system, during which hackers managed to get a ransom from the company in the amount of $ 5 million in Bitcoin. Monaco and Patel agreed that more attention needs to be paid to developing concrete measures against malware and the illegal use of cryptocurrencies, and to continue the dialogue on emerging threats to national security.

In October, US President Joe Biden announced that the United States would unite with 30 countries to accomplish this task. In the same month, the US Department of Justice announced the creation of a working group to find platforms that could be used by criminals to launder money through cryptocurrencies.