US treasury department sanctions crypto exchange Suex over ransomware attacks

NEW DELHI: The US treasury department launched sanctions against Suex, a crypto exchange, for money laundering related to ransomware payments.

The exchange is alleged to have facilitated transactions from illegitimate proceeds of 8 ransomware variants accounting to 40 percent of the company’s transaction.

Ransomware is a type of malware that uses encryption to disable access to key applications and databases.

Then the fraudsters ask the victims for ransom in lieu of not leaking the stolen data. This is the first time that the US government has resorted to such an action against a cryptocurrency or any virtual asset for that matter.