A task force formed by the Department of Justice is set to give recommendations on how to tackle ransomware involving digital assets today
Last week, the Department of Justice put together a team of experts commissioned to come up with practical ways of combating ransomware. The task force, which comprises government and industry experts, is set to deliver its complete submission today. A Reuters report published earlier today revealed that the team intends to propose aggressive crypto regulations.
Bitcoin has been the commonly used payment method due to its advantage over money transfers, which can be tracked. Ransomware attackers usually ask for ransom payments in Bitcoin. They then exchange these Bitcoin payments into Monero or other privacy coins that are harder to trace.
Reuters did not reveal the names of its sources but implied the regulations would be similar to those submitted by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. The report detailed that the experts’ panel will suggest “far more aggressive tracking of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies” to deal with the scourge. It noted three main strategies: improving the implementation of all know-your-customer (KYC) rules, adopting strict licencing requirements for crypto firms, and refining money laundering regulations.
Philip Reiner, the head of the Institute for Security and Technology, who chaired the panel of experts, asserted, “There’s a lot more that can be done to constrain the abuse of these pretty amazing technologies.” Reiner, however, didn’t divulge any more information on what the full report entails.
The proposed strategy means the list of regulatory requirements that cryptocurrency exchanges need to meet will grow bigger. There is also a probability that the standards that apply to traditional financial institutions will now be enforced on crypto firms.
Depending on their reach, some of the recommendations tabled by the panel may require approval from Congress. There are concerns that the proposed measures may brew tension among some crypto users who firmly believe the regulations will impact the privacy of the sector.
Other parties involved in the crypto sector have previously called for clear crypto regulations. The question has now changed from whether or not regulations should be enforced to the scope of the rules and how authorities should go about regulating digital assets. Federal regulators and financial crime investigators are some of these parties pushing for crypto regulations.