The best way to fight ransomware is to ban cryptocurrency – Lee Reiners
Many financial professionals have continued to discuss the pros and cons of cryptocurrencies in the economy. This time, a well-known financial expert, Lee Reiners, has argued that cryptocurrency should be outlawed.
He claims that the rise of ransomware and the adoption of cryptocurrencies are not related. Cryptocurrency, he claims, is the cause of cybercrime have increased in recent time.
Reiners is also the executive director of the Global Financial Markets Center at Duke University. “The existence of Bitcoin and the others benefits nobody except criminals and speculators” he told CNBC.
He went on to say that the best way to stop these threat actors is to ban bitcoin outright.
Ransom payments to hackers are becoming more common.
Reiners was asked what percentage of ransom payments to hackers are made with cryptocurrency. He claims that the number has risen over time. He estimated that the total ransom paid to date could be in the billions of dollars, including both documented and unreported cases.
Reiners went on to say that it's past time for law enforcement to investigate the matter because cryptocurrencies don't provide any significant economic benefits. Instead, it has resulted in an increase in criminal activity, with criminals becoming more daring because they can avoid getting detected while receiving money via cryptocurrencies.
Payments made in the form of ransomware should be prohibited.
Reiners also discussed expert recommendations to entirely prohibit corporations from paying ransom as a response to the growing number of threats. He remarked that enacting the legislation is not the issue, but rather getting people to follow it. Because of the nature of crypto payments, it can be impossible to tell who has paid and who hasn't.
He pointed out that even if 10% of corporations continue to pay the ransom, the regulation will be ineffective. It will, he claims, undercut the whole goal and promote more danger actors.
Reiners came to the conclusion that the ideal answer is to prohibit criminals from using cryptocurrencies to collect their ransom.