Ransomware attacks on financial sector targeted in House bill

The bipartisan proposal would require the Treasury secretary to detail public-private efforts to prevent and combat such incidents in a report to Congress.

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Alternative payment apps such as AliPay a boon for cybercriminals, experts tell Congress

They pointed to the use of apps such as China-based Alipay and Russia-based Qiwi as a growing problem and a national security threat.

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Want to reduce cybercrime? Undermine black market, watch cryptocurrency exchanges, experts say

The neverending stream of high-profile, large scale data breaches has lawmakers searching for answers on how hackers are benefiting and how to stop them. At a hearing Thursday, the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Terrorism and Illicit Finance heard from experts about how to find and crack down on cybercriminals who are swiping and trading massive amounts of individuals’ compromised private information. “The victim of a breach can become a victim repeatedly as their identity can be used to apply for credit cards, mortgages, and other financial products over and over again,” subcommittee Chairman Steve Pearce, R-N.M., said. “Unfortunately, this activity is only becoming more widespread as criminal organizations realize the low cost of entry, the ease of using hacking tools, and the difficulty law enforcement faces trying to apprehend hackers.” Lillian Ablon, an information scientist at the RAND Corporation, explained some ways law enforcement can crack down on black markets for stolen […]

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The curious case of the missing Mt. Gox bitcoin fortune

Did you lose a bunch of bitcoin from Mt. Gox? The “destination” of the digital currency from bitcoin’s most infamous theft is “definitely” known — but the finders won’t say where those coins are currently located. Mt. Gox, the largest bitcoin exchange at the time of its headline-grabbing demise, declared bankruptcy after the theft or disappearance of 850,000 bitcoins valued at $450 million in February 2014, along with $27 million in cash. Although 200,000 were eventually found, the location of the remaining 650,000 remained unknown and the subject of much speculation over the last three years. It turns out that Chainalysis, the investigator for Mt. Gox’s creditors, “definitely” knows where the coins are sitting right now, according to congressional testimony by the firm’s co-founder. Due to the surge in the cryptocurrency’s value since Mt. Gox went down, the 650,000 missing bitcoins are currently worth nearly $2 billion. The legal battles over the missing coins temporarily landed the CEO of […]

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