Christopher Krebs, the former official from the Department of Homeland Security has talked about the current situation of cryptocurrencies in the country. During an interview on Friday, March 26, 2021, Krebs shared his concerns and general public perception over cryptocurrencies.
He stated that the government needs to pay very close attention to cryptocurrencies. The government needs to monitor the way the cryptocurrency firms in the country are handling the flows of cryptocurrency transactions.
In the interview, he talked about anonymous transactions, calling them to be the main threat. He stated that the citizens of the United States who are at the average level are concerned about the threat of anonymous transactions.
Christopher Krebs was formerly the director of the Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security of the United States of America. He shared his concerns over the anonymous transactions in cryptocurrencies on the “Late Night with Bill Maher” show.
During the interview, the show host “Bill Maher” asked Krebs about cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin (BTC). He asked him where he sees the American economy going with cryptocurrencies and Bitcoin (BTC). Krebs gave a very logical and detailed answer to Maher’s question and also called out Biden to look into the matter.
According to Krebs, although the industry is promising and the most advanced, yet its very nature is very much harmful. He added that the cryptocurrency industry is decentralized, which means that anonymous transactions through the platform a common.
He talked about how the cryptocurrency industry has led to an enormous amount of increase in ransomware in recent years. He stated that cryptocurrencies are fulfilling all the requirements that criminals need in order to carry out ransomware activities.
He stated that at present, the threat to the American cybersecurity infrastructure is not from international attackers but from internal ones. He stated that the matter of Russia, China, or North Korea trying to hack America’s security systems should be on second priority.
Right now, the most concerning matter is the local threat that cyber-hackers pose to the local sectors. Krebs talked about how more than 1,600 educational institutions have been hit by hackers for ransomware. In all of the ransomware instances, the hackers asked to be paid in cryptocurrencies, because they are untraceable.
He added that this is something that if not controlled, will continue to grow bigger and harm the economy of the entire country. As per him, the most concerning part is that the people practicing these ransomware activities are not even criminals but those who know how to manage crypto-scams.
He requested that Joe Biden needs to address this concern at the earliest and his administration needs to introduce more strict rules and amendments to the regulatory infrastructure currently being practice around cryptocurrencies.