Why investing in cryptocurrency has become a priority for the CIA?

William Burns, director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), revealed that the US intelligence agency had several projects related to cryptocurrencies. He qualified these various initiatives as important priorities, in particular to protect against future cyber attacks. A news that will give ground to grind to the conspiratorial spheres.

William Burns, director of the CIA, claimed that the intelligence agency was behind several projects in the cryptocurrency sector. If William Burns has only been at the head of the agency since March 2021, it has been several years since the projects started. ” I inherited a number of cryptocurrency projects from my predecessor, he said during the P-.DG summit of the Wall Street Journal. We try to determine the degree of consequences at the second and third level, and help our colleagues in the United States government to provide information. solid on what we also observe ”.

If the government is interested in cryptocurrencies, it is mainly because of ransomware. This computer attack technique, which has become more and more common, aims to send a malware to encrypt a system’s data and then request a ransom to the company to retrieve the information. In the extreme majority of cases, the ransom is demanded in cryptocurrency to allow thieves to disappear with thesilver in nature. In May 2021, the United States and the Colonial Pipeline pipeline system had to pay a ransom of 75 bitcoins to hackers, which at the time was approximately $ 4.4 million.

Tackling underground financial networks

In fact, it is not surprising that the American agency is interested in the blockchain. Cryptography has for decades now been the nerve of war for the protection of important messages. The evolution of the means of communication is essential to protect its own operations, but also to learn the techniques of its adversaries. Because, if cryptocurrencies are increasingly popular with the general public, the underground economy, especially money laundering, remains a predominant part of exchanges.

Going back further, we can remember the arrest of the chief of Silk road, a website on the TOR network that offered all kinds of illegal services, drug, weapons and other services in exchange for cryptocurrency. Edward snowden had revealed in documents that the agency was tracking bitcoin users to find out more about their activities. Back then, in 2013, it was common to use cryptocurrency for its services. Obviously, the price has changed a lot since then.

In conspiracy circles, many rumors have long circulated that the creator of bitcoin is actually a US government agency. Their goal would be to finance opaque and mysterious projects. That should still give them something to grind.