Bitcoin Forum

I just came across an atricle where the US treasury department purpose to sanction crypto and the reason they give is that bitcoin is used for ransomware so if we stop the usuage of bitcoin, there will be no Ransomware  attacks. How ridiculous it this ?

Instead of going after the hackers, they are going after the crypto. Will the hackers stop ransonware attacks if there is no crypto ?

US Treasury Dept sanctions crypto OTC broker Suex for alleged role in facilitating transactions for ransomware attacks (https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-treasury-dept-sanctions-crypto-otc-broker-suex-for-alleged-role-in-facilitating-transactions-for-ransomware-attacks)

Interesting; in 20th there was a news U.S. to Target Crypto Ransomware Payments With Sanctions (https://www.wsj.com/articles/cyber-daily-u-s-to-target-crypto-ransomware-payments-with-sanctions-11632145164?mod=searchresults_pos3&page=1), which was discussed one day later here on bitcointalk (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5361032.0;topicseen).
One day later, on the 21th, there's already this news you posted. So they were already targeting Suex. So they were cooking it for a while already...



Sadly, it's in line with how government agencies work. They restrict the businesses and individuals' rights, while the actual wrongdoers will find their ways to go around these barriers and continue as usual.

Hackers exist before crypto got introduced and mainstream. Instead of making way/solutions on how they can protect their data from ransomware/attacks they just go to one who is not responsible for the attack.

As if the attack will stop if they prohibits crypto.

They are not to sanction crypto, it is one of the Russian Exchange SUEX, who are being used by crypto scammers, including all illegal activities (darkweb, ransomware etc). There is one problem though, it is based on Russia, so not sure if US treasury can shut it down.

As far as criminals in online world, even before the existence of crypto, there have been a lot. Do you guys still remember this? Nigerian Price Scam. (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/18/nigerian-prince-scams-still-rake-in-over-700000-dollars-a-year.html)

Good luck with issuing that because no way in hell that cryptocurrencies are the reason for all of their problems with ransomware, they're the US government so I don't think it's not that hard for them to catch or protect themselves from these cyber criminals, aren't they good at meddling with the affairs of other countries? This is a piece of cake to them but their putting the burden on the people.

OP your link are broken, you can change with this one https://www.uktimenews.com/us-treasury-department-sanctions-crypto-broker-otc-suex-for-alleged-role-in-facilitating-transactions-for-ransomware-attacks/ and you're wrong, the sanction is for Suex OTC not the Bitcoin or crypto usage.


The question is why US departement going to far? Suex OTC is on Czech and Russian, not US... so they should faced a law on their own countries if these countries has a rule of Money Laundering. Chainalysis categorized Ransomware, Scams, High risk exchanges, Darknet market and Mixers are high risk sources, I agree with all category except mixers. Though mixers could be used for Money laundering but not all coins mixed is illegal, it should be grey area.

https://i.ibb.co/0Gbhgvv/Screenshot-9.jpg

Nice to see that at least someone here reads the whole title, lol.

OP, did you even read the article that you linked? No one is banning crypto is a whole, that's not even on the table. Think twice before creating threads that spread panic and misinformation.

You have a point but until they could tackle the origin, all they'll be doing is catching their shadows; in other words, they're always one step behind ^{[regardless of the imposed sanctions]}!

Exactly, I wonder why Chainalysis used that word in their blog post?!

From their own words:

• Quote from: https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-treasury-dept-sanctions-crypto-otc-broker-suex-for-alleged-role-in-facilitating-transactions-for-ransomware-attacks
  "exchanges like Suex are critical to attackers' ability to extract profits from ransomware attackers," seemingly targeting cryptocurrency. He added that the sanctions were an attempt to “disrupt the illicit infrastructure using these attacks."

What I think might be the main reason:

• Quote from: https://blog.chainalysis.com/reports/ofac-sanction-suex-september-2021
  Suex is also found to have received over $50 million worth of Bitcoin sent from addresses hosted at illicit cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e from 2018 through 2021, well after BTC-e was shut down by U.S. authorities for its own money laundering activity on behalf of cybercriminals.

---

Unfortunately, they're not the only ones with that type of attitude towards mixers ^{[e.g. AMLBot, Antinalysis and etc...]}.

I think the sanction is targeted at exchanges that accept or facilitate transactions from ransomware attackers and other dangerous crypto criminals.
Ofcourse, such criminals use digital fiats too, even with kyc and other things that are used to check them.    The transparency of True Crypto makes detecting and tracking such people/things easy. Exchanges and crypto communities need to cooperate with security agencies as long as the good crypto ideals and rights of innocent users are not violated.

Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have always been highlighting if the case happens any ransomware via Bitcoin. But an everyday lot of crime happening in the world with fiat money. But it hasn't been highlighting at all. Most probably we are crypto users and that's why this kind of news pops up in front of us. But I am pretty sure a group of people doesn't like Bitcoin and they target Bitcoin to dump. I don't believe ransomware will stop even we stop using Bitcoin. Criminals will choose something else to do it. Blaming Bitcoin for ransomware is just nonsense. It wouldn't hurt Bitcoin.

There is no limit to the amount of trash that come pouring out of the mouths of these government figures and organisations when it's on an innovation that is not government oriented such as cryptos. I'm not surprised at all at them (the US treasury) for this.

Instead of seeing a way to tackle the criminals, they question the crime committed. It's more like, sanctioning fiat for it to have have used in ransomeware should that have been the case. It just doesn't make sense.

The next you would hear is that, crimes like kidnapping, scamming, fraud and lots of others originated with cryptos or became more pronounced.  These guys are just about the FUD and its left for the crypto community to know better.

I think there was a misinterpretation made by OP. It was not bitcoin who will be given sanction by the US Treasury Department but its for the Czech and Russian Suex OTC for alledgely allowing hackers to gain access to crypto sent as payment for ransomware attacks. Bitcoin is not really their target. Its really disappointing in my case if they will blame bitcoin when in the fact, bitcoin has nothing to do with it.

They cannot sanction crypto; no one can be sued by them no matter what they do. It is the platform which the hackers are using to dump and exchange whatever they got from their victims. Idk how the US will impose those sanctions, or how strong their case will be against the said exchange.

Also, isn't this the way how governments deal with such cases? Instead of going after those who broke the law, they go after those who did nothing to break the law just so they can pat themselves on the back and tell themselves that they did a great job.

No, they can't stop the hackers to keep going with ransomware. Even if they ban bitcoin and et. al, these hackers will still attack those vulnerable people and then no one will stop them from asking crypto from their victims. They should track down these hackers.
What a brilliant idea, giving sanction to crypto and banning bitcoin, who are they against with? nobody can stop the usage of these and they should stop the hackers instead.

Their attack on crypto to allegedly protect the cyber infrastructure from ransomware will only protect them from local attacks/threats but not from international attacks, remember that Russia is secretly funding cyber criminals to attack USA albeit their denying it, they're protecting them still.

To be honest it's much easier tracking these attackers down and apprehending them than banning cryptocurrencies in general. Just another way for the government to mask its ulterior motives of protecting fiat's standing in the economy. Although just like the other moves they did in the past, this will also be in vain. The amount of people who know what bitcoin and cryptocurrencies are capable of is nothing to laugh about, the government should be aware of that. True. What they are trying to do is barking at the wrong tree basically. Thinking that it's bitcoin that's causing the ransomware and hacking attacks when it's can never be closer to the truth. Feasibility researches should be made before proposing bills like this because it's just stupid to think to hear that the people we entrusted our taxes with think like this.

I don't know about that Russia that you've mentioned but you'll never know when an attack will happen and when it is originating. It's not the only country that has that infrastructure towards cyber security. And about saying that they're funding cyber criminals, where have you read that, will you please link the source? thanks.

They should have focused on the actual problem and that's to chase those hackers and not pointing their fingers to bitcoin.

There are many way to do money laundering. Even if those hackers use worthless new coin but they agree with the value of it then it is works. Law enforcement should focus on the hackers. I think even if bitcoin is not exist those hackers will still have desire to hack to get money. The problem is the human not bitcoin. I am pretty surprised that some people has that way of thinking.

How could they stop if they do really plan out to do so? Bitcoin network couldnt be stopped as long there would be a demand.Cyberattacks or ransomeware had been here before bitcoin had exist.
It did really just able to even more rampant when crypto did exist which its undeniable which it is totally its cons due to anonymity which hacks do really make use of that advantage.
They are just good on verbal things on stopping it but no one could really do in the first place thats why we should rather mind instead about security and being having common sense
to avoid possible hacks or ransomwares.

Whether the SUEX is based out of Russia, China or who knows made by nerd in his back trunk, the big point here it’s Online. It’s through the Internet which can be masked if you are smart enough and wander the world anonymously. I think US will have no regulation upon this matter if it’s over the Internet. We saw that, US will fear before they could take down the bitcoin or crypto space because they know in today’s word most of the income is made over the Internet and it’s rising at alarming rate.

So if they are not able to take down the home mysteries then how would they go in another country and do it.

Fraudulent and illicit activities are happening since centuries and will continue in days to come, there is no way to eliminate them. Government can play its role to minimize them. Hacking was there even before BTC came into existence. Technology is double edge sword and it has both good and bad usages. AFAIK, government just using such issue to do more opposition to crypto rather then targeting the real issue.   

The nature of Bitcoin allows for easier collection of funds when involved in ransomware attacks, that is an undeniable fact. Actively banning Bitcoin or otherwise imposing sanctions on an exchange does not solve the problem. It is merely an attempt at trying to show people that they're doing something. Fraudsters are always going to mix their funds and use P2P methods to exchange the funds and people would be none the wiser. OFAC is quite a useless list and doesn't do anything to tackle the problem.

They are just linking it to crypto in order for the government to control crypto. Yes, there is a possibility that the ransomware attack is due to hackers wanting to know your data/assets and holding it for you to pay but lets think outside of it. Crypto or not, ransomware will happen if your computer didn't have enough protection and if you are negligent.

The US Treasury department has a point on this but should also consider that this ransomware attackers hide within exchanges to get ransom for their attacks but sanctioning this exchange is a like blaming a man for been attacked by an anonymous armed robber. I believe theCzech Republic and Russia-based business Suex OTC  might not really know how the wallets of this Randsomware attackers get funded so the US Treasury department  would be going too extreme blaming them

One of the new ways that scammers are currently using to launder money is with NFT. You must know by now the price of NFT is insane. A single NFT image is even worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Apart from that as you said about creating a new coin which is planned and then RugPull happens, that is also a scammer scam.
Not just Using Ransomware, Ransomware is just a tool that can be applied to any crime. Even if there is no bitcoin, fraud with other methods will still exist and the target is of course users.

I don't just get the analogy you were trying to pass through but then, the US treasury has got no point on this I tell you. Crypto has got to be crypto as well as bitcoin would stay bitcoin. Its supposed to be anonymous and it should stay that way, signifying the freedom of the people. All this trash they throw around is just because, its not an asset within a centralized system and as such, its very far from there paws. Even if cryptos go out of existence, ransomware would still be collected by criminals so, they've just got to stop beating themselves up.

The conspiracy theory that sounds even worst is this..... The US government are behind these hacks and they fabricated these hacks to get a reason to ban Bitcoin. You remember the search for the "Weapons of Mass destruction" and the invasion of  Iraq ...... for Oil?

There even was some people who were saying the 9/11 attacks was sanctioned by the US to start a war .... because a war provide them a opportunity to profit and to create job opportunities for their soldiers. (You cannot pay 100 000's of people in the army... just to train)

So.... you still think these so-called hackers are real?

I really don't understand why they blame Bitcoin for every bad thing. They only point out the negatives and where are the positives? All these criminal acts, were they not in existence before Bitcoin? If someone uses a bottle to break a fellow's head, will they ban the use of glass bottles too? Silly! I think they are just looking for excuses to stop the usage of Bitcoin before it becomes uncontrollable for them.

Its all lame excuses nothingless and this had been always the traditional words that we do commonly hear out when it comes to criticisms about bitcoin on where it should be banned because it is been used mainly by

criminals or people who do have criminality kind of thinking without even realizing or looking back that things like these did really exist before Bitcoin exist.It is really just that they are really pushing that bitcoin would

end up on having negative reputation but it turns out that it wont really be enough because there are lots in the community had really believed on bitcoin true use case.

This is just another excuse for them to get bitcoin banned.

To me, this proves that they're unable to do anything but fill out people who're unaware of bitcoin with information that's damaging to its reputation.

**Trojans are created using C++ so the operating system must be banned**

Such a conclusion can be made only by a person or persons who have no idea what they are talking about, or knowingly want to manipulate the public. Blaming a tool for something, not the one using it, has always been wrong - and if they are already going in that direction, let them ban the sale of firearms to civilians, thus saving thousands of innocent people every year.

In addition, the fact is that ransomware has been around since 1989, so long before anyone even thought of Bitcoin.

I am not in anyway neglecting the anonymous nature of Bitcoin or other decentralized cryptocurrency. And I know as well that even if cryptocurrency goes into extinction ransomware attackers will still be on the increase. My point here is the government have every right to react to the level of cyber attack on their database and assets in which the attackers demand ransom in cryptocurrency where exchanges is  the medium for receiving the ransom fee but there is nothing this exchanges can do to salvage this case because no one can point out who owns which coin and how this coins were moved. Except for exchanges that enforces KYC on their customers

Stop Cryptocurrency, Ransomware attack would be perpetrated through another medium. Hackers do not relent. They should work towards stopping the hackers instead and not blame the fault on crypto.