Episode #197: Crypto and Illicit Finance Trends

We interview a very important man addressing many important topics this episode. You see, Yaya Fanusie spent seven years as both an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, where he regularly briefed White House-level policy makers, U.S. military personnel, and federal law enforcement. In 2008, he personally briefed President George W. Bush on terrorism threats, and in 2009, he spent three months in Afghanistan providing analytic support to senior military officials. With an interest in crypto over the last year, we wanted to interview him to see discuss a number of threats in the crypto world.

Recently, the world was hit by ransomware that locked up computers in hospitals, universities, and private firms, demanding Bitcoin in exchange for files being decrypted. The same exploits that allowed the WannaCry ransomware attack to spread so quickly last year, have been used to set up an illicit cryptocurrency mining scheme. And it sure was worth it to the hackers.  It was able to spread so fast thanks to a Windows flaw weaponized by the U.S. National Security Agency known as EternalBlue, and a back door called DoublePulsar. Sadly, the tools were inadvertently lost and leaked because the NSA considered it wise to stockpile them for future use. What can we do about these attacks? Tune in!