The U.S. Treasury Department is opening up its cybersecurity information sharing to crypto companies to help them fend off attacks as the industry becomes an increasingly important part of the financial system, according to a Thursday statement.
Eligible crypto companies and organizations — a status not yet clearly defined in the announcement — can sign on for the same service enjoyed by traditional financial institutions. Treasury’s Office of Cybersecurity and Critical Infrastructure Protection will include them in “timely, actionable cybersecurity information,” and encouraged interested companies to contact that office if they are interested in the free service.
The move responds to an earlier recommendation by the President’s Task Force on Digital Asset Markets, which issued a report last year that included several ideas for information sharing about cyberattack dangers.
“By expanding access to the same high-quality cybersecurity information used by traditional financial institutions, Treasury is helping to foster a more secure and responsible ecosystem for digital assets,” Luke Pettit, assistant secretary for financial institutions, said in a statement.
The digital asset sector has been plagued by malicious hacks since its earliest days. Hardly a month goes by without a notable cyber attack draining significant funds or data from crypto operations. North Korean-linked hackers stole over $280 million from the decentralized platform Drift last week. Just this week, recent incidents spurred the Solana Foundation to pursue new security measures to prevent exploitation.
Billions of dollars in assets are stolen each year, often by hacking groups sponsored by nations such as North Korea. Digital security has remained one of the points of concern for US lawmakers weighing legislation that would bring the crypto sector into the regulated financial system.
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