The United States’ National Security Agency (NSA) is working to develop a quantum-resistant digital currency, Bloomberg Technology reporter William Turton revealed on Wednesday.
According to a tweet by Turton, the prospect of the agency was disclosed at the Billington Cybersecurity 10th annual summit in Washington D.C. by Anne Neuberger, director of the agency’s cybersecurity directorate.
Anne Neuberger, Director of NSA’s new Cybersecurity Directorate says that the agency will propose hardware and software standards again. Also notes agency is working to build quantum resistant crypto. pic.twitter.com/IIvjz1aTjO
— William Turton (@WilliamTurton) September 4, 2019
A digital currency immune to any cyber threats
The agency is taking the step with the rising threats of cybercrimes, including the skyrocketing extortion using Ransomware. While speaking at the summit, Neuberger also pointed out that Ransomware has increased to “4,000 attacks a day over the last number of years” which also has become a major concern for the upcoming 2020 presidential elections in the United States.
In addition to Ransomware, the director also emphasized on the state-sponsored cyberattacks by North Korea, China, Russia, and Iran.
“In the intelligence community, we put a tremendous focus on countries, what their plans are and how they use cyber to achieve their strategic agendas, and each one does things a bit different because their strategic objectives are a bit different,” she said in the summit.
Last month, a United Nations report revealed that the communist regime of North Korea raised $2 billion by stealing digital currencies and fiats to fund its nuclear weapons program. The country, however, recently released a statement denying all the allegations made against it by the United Nations.
Meanwhile, other hacker groups from countries like North Korea are also constantly targeting crypto exchanges for financial gains. Earlier this year, Finance Magnates reported that the infamous North Korean hacker group Lazarus APT adopted sophisticated attacking techniques to breach the security of crypto exchanges.
