The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has established several projects on crypto, according to Director Bill Burns.
At The Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit, Burns said that cyber criminal gangs were expanding their reach in terms of the scale of attacks, their number and sophistication.
Cryptocurrencies were mired in several high-profile ransomware scandals earlier this year, with the Colonial Pipeline hack being the most notable one.
The news about the CIA being involved in crypto reignited some tired conspiracy theories about the agency’s role in creating Bitcoin.
Last year, it came to light that leading Swiss encryption company Crypto AG had been secretly controlled by the CIA and West German intelligence for decades.
