How Bitcoin Has Fueled Ransomware Attacks

The company says it made that payment to prevent more disruptions after its plants in North America and Australia were shut down.

GREG MYRE, BYLINE: The problem has long plagued bank robbers and drug smugglers – how to transport and hide large sums of ill-gotten gains without getting caught.

MYRE: But Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies made it possible to extort huge ransoms from large companies, hospitals and city governments.

YONATAN STRIEM-AMIT: You see exactly all the way the money moves from one address, one wallet to another.

The FBI did recover more than half of the $4.4 million in ransom the company paid to the hackers, believed to be based in Russia.

SHETH: Cybersecurity, the last couple years, has become a hot topic.

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