The current director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns, said that his predecessor at the government agency started projects focused on gathering intelligence on cryptocurrencies.
Answering a question about cryptography in the Wall street journal CEO Council Summit Monday, Burns said The CIA was looking to add cryptocurrency and blockchain expertise to its team of intelligence analysts, in addition to communicating with industry experts. He said the challenges of the crypto space "could have a huge impact" on the United States, given what it has already seen in ransomware attacks.
"My predecessor had started this," Burns said, probably referring to the actions of former acting CIA director David Cohen. "[They] had launched a number of different projects focusing on cryptocurrency and trying to see second and third order consequences and helping with our colleagues in other parts of the US government to provide robust intelligence on what we are seeing as well. . . "
He added that creating such crypto knowledge was "a major priority" for the Agency, and he planned to devote "resources and attention" to it. The CIA director did not mention details about the direction the Agency planned to take with regard to fighting cyberattacks, but hinted that its goal would be to "reach the financial networks" of criminal groups using digital currencies to demand a ransom. .
Burns, who took over as director in March, has seen hackers demand millions in crypto during a attack on the Colonial Pipeline system in May, but also a US government task force responded by recovering most of the lost funds. Michael Morrell, former acting director of the CIA from 2012 to 2013, said that "blockchain analysis is a highly effective intelligence gathering and crime-fighting tool," a underused by law enforcement agencies.
Related: The CIA has held keys to encryption of global communications since World War II
There is no fixed term for a CIA director, which means that Burns will likely serve at the Agency at the discretion of US President Joe Biden. At press time, Biden has yet to announce his selections to fill three empty seats on the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System.
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