The Biden administration said Thursday it is escalating the fight to crack down on cryptocurrency-fueled crimes through the formation of a new specialized FBI unit and the naming of a Justice Department prosecutor to lead a national enforcement team.
Hacks and cyberattacks have hammered America’s public and private computer networks in recent years, and criminals encrypting systems with ransomware typically require payment in digital currency to unfreeze access to computer networks. IBM has estimated that the average ransomware breach cost $4.62 million between May 2020 and March 2021.
To combat the cybercriminals, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Thursday that the FBI is creating a “Virtual Asset Exploitation Unit” and she named Eun Young Choi, a computer crimes prosecutor, to lead the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team that started last year. The FBI unit will gather cryptocurrency experts who understand virtual asset seizure and digital ledger analysis and join the work started by the Justice Department team last year.
“Ransomware and digital extortion, like many other crimes fueled by cryptocurrency, only work if the bad guys get paid, which means we have to bust their business model,” said Ms. Monaco at the Munich Cyber Security Conference.
Last week, Ms. Monaco announced the arrest of a New York couple accused of a conspiracy to launder cryptocurrency. The Justice Department said the federal government seized $3.6 billion in cryptocurrency related to a 2016 hack of digital currency exchange.
The FBI has had some success in recovering cryptocurrency paid in response to ransomware attacks. Last year, the U.S. government said it recovered about $2.3 million paid to the ransomware attackers who struck Colonial Pipeline, a major U.S. fuel supplier. An FBI unit in San Francisco worked to recover the funds.
Ms. Monaco said Thursday that the strategy of following the money led the government to gangster Al Capone in the 1930s, destroyed the La Cosa Nostra mafia in the 1960s, and shuttered terrorist financing networks earlier this century, and it would be useful again in tackling crypto criminals.
“The currency might be virtual but the message to companies is concrete: If you report to us, we can follow the money and not only help you, but hopefully prevent the next victim,” Ms. Monaco said.
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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