At Hearing, Senator Hassan Continues Sounding Alarm On Criminal Use of Cryptocurrency Following Peterborough Cyber Attack

WASHINGTON – At a U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Maggie Hassan continued sounding the alarm on the criminal use of cryptocurrency, following the recent cyberattack on the Town of Peterborough, which resulted in the theft of $2.3 million in taxpayer dollars.

To view the Senator’s comments, click here.

“I recently wrote to several agencies, including the Department of Justice and the Treasury, highlighting a cyberattack on the town of Peterborough, New Hampshire,” said Senator Hassan. “The perpetrators quickly converted most of the $2.3 million dollars, which in a small town in New Hampshire I can assure you is a lot of money, in taxpayer dollars that they stole, and they converted it into cryptocurrency, making it unrecoverable.”

Senator Hassan asked Alexis Goldstein, Financial Policy Director for the Open Markets Institute, what actions agencies can take to prevent criminal cryptocurrency activity. Goldstein shared multiple suggestions, including applying current securities laws.

Senator Hassan highlighted other commonsense solutions to such ransomware attacks, including stronger know-your-customer requirements for cryptocurrency exchanges that she has pushed for.

“It becomes much harder to evade law enforcement when your name is attached to the cryptocurrency wallet you’re using to commit crimes like ransomware attacks, drug trafficking, and money laundering,” the Senator said.

The Senator also spoke of how her recently introduced bipartisan bill with Senator Ernst “would require Treasury to report to Congress on how cryptocurrency is used globally and its effects on global supply chains.”

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