U.S. senators propose amendments to cybersecurity bill for crypto firms

U.S. senators Marsha Blackburn and Cynthia Lummis have proposed amending the 2015 Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act that would allow firms engaged in crypto assets and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to share information regarding cyber threats with government agencies.

Crypto firms to report cyber attacks

Tennessee Senator Marsha Blackburn and Wyoming Senator Cynthia Lummis have introduced a draft bill to amend the Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act of 2015 to include voluntary information sharing of cyber threat indicators among cryptocurrency companies.

If approved, the act would be renamed as the Cryptocurrency Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act, allowing crypto firms to report a data breach, ransomware attack, or network damage to government agencies for assistance.

Also, agencies such as the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency can then enforce rules and regulations for crypto firms to follow to combat possible cyber-attacks.

The 2015 act was aimed at building a strong cybersecurity network that drew its database from federal, state, and private entities and provided input to combat cyber-attacks. 

Ransomware attacks on cryptocurrency significant

The volume of ransomware attacks on cryptocurrency networks is significant and the U.S. government is keen to bring new rules and regulations to the table to combat these crimes.

An FBI report stated that its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) division received 34,202 complaints involving the use of some type of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Ripple in 2021.

While that number showed a decrease from 2020’s victim count (35,229), the loss amount reported in IC3 complaints increased nearly seven-fold, from 2020’s reported amount of $246,212,432 to a total reported losses in 2021 of more than $1.6 billion.

It is amidst such intense cyber warfare against cryptocurrency and other virtual assets that authorities are realizing the need for strong regulations.

However, it also seems to corrode the presumed belief of cryptocurrency firms that they could operate independently without government interference.