Monero Featured In Last Week Tonight, Essential Tool In “Ransomware Economy”?

Emmy award winner satirical show “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” released a segment on ransomware attacks in the U.S. and their alleged main financial enablers, cryptocurrencies Bitcoin (BTC) and Monero (XMR). This criminal activity has been on the rise in the U.S. and has been caused by concerns from authorities and the public. The segment begins with a review of some of the most important ransomware attacks recently perpetrated by hackers groups allegedly based in Russia and other safe-haven countries. Attributed to hacker group REvil and The DarkSide, these bad actors supposedly took over the company Colonial Pipeline. Responsible for overseen 45% of the U.S. east coast fuel, hackers took over the main computers and demanded to be paid in Bitcoin. This droved many inhabitants of the regions to chaos, attracting more attention to an issue already affecting everyday citizens, the report by Last Week Tonight presented several examples. Data presented by the show claimed that revenues from ransomware attacks paid in Bitcoin, Monero, and other cryptocurrencies have “quadruple” during 2020. This metric stood at $350 million, according to “undercount” estimates, at that time. These types of attacks have been gaining traction due to platforms that offer “ransomware as a service”, making it easy for anyone to acquire malware and used it for these purposes. In addition, the segment claimed that Bitcoin, Monero, and cryptocurrenc...