Pentagon Fears Bitcoin attack on America’s Corporations
America’s military planners fear terrorists will use cryptocurrency to attack large corporations.
U.S. military strategists are trying to devise a defense against a cryptocurrency-powered terrorist attack on the United States. The Intercept claims a 2018 Pentagon war-game scenario includes a conflict between the US military and a fictional terrorist group strategists call Zbellion.
The Zbellion is a future far-left anarchist movement of frustrated Generation Z (people born after 1996) Americans. In a scenario in a Pentagon war game; the 2018 Joint Land, Air and Sea Strategic Special Program, Zbellion steals enormous amounts of money from large corporations through hacking.
The Zbellion hackers convert the cash into Bitcoin (BTC) and distribute it to followers to fuel their revolt. In addition, Zbellion “taxes” large corporations and redistributes their wealth to ordinary people.
Pentagon fears Ransomware Attack
The Intercept does not describe the taxes, but I think the taxes are extortion or protection. To explain, Big Corporations, governments, and the rich could pay Zbellion not to attack them by using cryptocurrency.
Zbellion could use ransomware to collect such a “tax.” To elaborate, ransomware is a malware that blocks access to data networks and computers through encryption. To remove the encryption, victims have to pay the ransomware creators in cryptocurrency; usually Bitcoin (BTC).
Ransomware attacks have crippled city and town governments and hospitals in the United States. Hence American military planners believe ransomware will become a weapon of war.
US Government Prepares Cryptocurrency Surveillance
Hence, the US military believes cryptocurrencies could threaten national security. Thus, US government officials view cryptocurrency as a threat.
Furthermore, Coindesk claims Coin Base is helping government entities including the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) track cryptocurrency users. Coindesk alleges Coin Base has created a tool its developers call Coinbase Analytics.
Agencies; such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), could use Coin Analytics to track cryptocurrency transactions, The Block alleges. Additionally, The Block claims Coin Base plans to sell Coin Analytics and other tracking software to governments.
Therefore, governments view cryptocurrency as a threat and are preparing defenses against that threat. In the final analysis, the Pentagon believes cryptocurrency warfare is a genuine threat.
All cryptocurrency users need to prepare for the cryptocurrency warfare and the threat it poses to everybody’s privacy. In the future, both government agencies and terrorists could use cryptocurrency weapons against corporations and ordinary people.