Biden Cracks Down on Cyber Attacks
After President Joe Biden announced sanctions against a virtual currency exchange, he announced a crypto-skeptic for his nomination for comptroller.
Last week, President Biden took action against the growing ransomware attacks by the Treasury Department imposing sanctions against Suex. This move will cut off digital payments to hackers.
This action is the administration’s response to ransomware attacks on supplies of fuel and meat earlier this year. The criminals shut down corporate computers and asked for large sums of money to be paid with cryptocurrency.
According to the Treasury Department, payments to criminal hackers were more than $400 million in 2020, four times higher than in 2019.
Biden continues signaling a crackdown on cryptocurrency by announcing his nomination for Comptroller of the Currency, Saule Omarova. She’s a critic of big banks and cryptocurrency.
She sees cryptocurrency as a growing risk. She has said digital currencies could allow banks to conduct more transactions outside the Federal Reserve’s view and other regulators.
Omarova is the Law and Regulation of Financial Institutions and Markets program director of Cornell’s Jack Clarke Institute for the Study and Practice of Business Law at Cornell University.
If confirmed, she would be the first woman and first person of color to serve as comptroller.
She was also a policy advisor for the Treasury Department under George W. Bush’s administration. While she worked in a Republican administration, she faces a challenging confirmation process because some of her views rub republicans the wrong way.
No date has been set for Omarova’s confirmation hearing.
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