Editorial Board
How Crypto Abets Ransomware Attacks
There’s no need to promote innovation in money laundering.
Here be pirates.
Photographer: Samuel Corum/Bloomberg
Last month’s spectacular security breach at the Colonial Pipeline Co. has focused attention on a major issue with cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin. Their primary use as a medium of exchange, as opposed to their role as a store of value, is for payments related to crime — in this case, more than $4 million in ransom to the hackers who shut down a significant part of America’s fuel supply.
This is one area where a laissez-faire attitude toward technological innovation cannot apply.