FinCEN identifies anti-ransomware and cryptocurrency abuse as the nation’s top priority

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) has identified “Cybercrime, including cybersecurity and virtual currency issues” as one of the highest national priorities. The Ministry of Finance is particularly concerned about “the misuse of virtual assets to exploit and impair their innovative potential, including through money laundering”.

FinCEN identifies anti-ransomware and cryptocurrency abuse as the country’s top priority

FinCEN, Office of the Treasury, published the document “Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing” last week.

One of the priorities listed is “Cybercrime, including cybersecurity and virtual currency considerations”. Document details:

The Treasury Department is particularly concerned about financial crimes with the potential for cyberattacks, ransomware and the misuse of virtual assets that exploit and harm their innovation potential, including money laundering.

The document adds that “combating ransomware has been identified as a top priority for the United States”. Strategies that have been developed to combat ransomware attacks include “quickly tracking and banning revenue from virtual currencies,” the document says.

FinCEN writes that convertible virtual currency (CVC) “has become a preferred currency for many illegal online activities”.

“Criminals use a variety of techniques to disguise the source of illicit funds when conducting CVC-related transactions, including the use of mixers and kegs,” the bureau stated.

In June, President Joe Biden issued a directive directing federal agencies to prioritize global anti-corruption efforts and put cryptocurrency at the center. The Biden administration has also announced its anti-ransomware strategy, which includes expanding cryptanalysis to detect criminal transactions.

Learn FinCEN

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is an office of the US Treasury Department that collects and analyzes information about financial transactions in order to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, and other financial crimes.

The FinCEN director expressed his mission in November 2013 to “protect the financial system from unauthorized use, fight money laundering and promote national security”. FinCEN acts as the United States’ Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) and is one of the 147 FIUs that make up the Egmont Financial Intelligence Unit Group. FinCEN’s self-declared motto is “Follow the money. “The website states,” The main motive of criminals is financial gain, and they leave a financial trail when they try to launder the proceeds of crime or spend their illegal profits, “by coordinating information sharing with law enforcement, regulators and others other partners in the financial industry.

Virtual currency, with its anonymous and decentralized nature, has inadvertently become a vehicle for criminal organizations to conduct illegal activities, recently, countries are constantly being attacked by ransomware causing serious problems. The use of electronic money to cover up tax evasion, smuggling, drugs, money laundering, terrorism, etc. is also growing in popularity and becoming an urgent problem in many countries, particularly the United States.

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