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America's 21st Century Machiavellian Moment
A Call for a
Return To First Principles, Part 2
4. One possible solution to alleviate the Scrounge of Ransomware is to shutdown the TOR network.
Ransomware threat actors operate behind a cloak of anonymity provided by the TOR network. The TOR network is a loose amalgam of servers located across the globe. It is its decentralized nature that makes the TOR network not just a useful tool for cyber criminals. The TOR network also offers civil liberties groups in many different countries the means to communicate domestically and to the world at large. Shutting down the TOR network, even if it would be feasible to do so, would hamper these people fighting for their freedom.
A June 15, 2020 report on a law enforcement workshop presented by National Institute of Justice that focused on how law enforcement might thwart the criminals who abuse the TOR network. The report laid out the dual nature of the TOR network. The report offered an easy to understand explanation of how the TOR network operates.
The Dark web, says this report, is:
.... defined as those hyperlinked services on the dark net accessible only through The Onion Router (or Tor) protocol or similar protocols. Tor is a specially configured browser enabling users to access services on the web in ways that are difficult or impossible to trace. Typical web browsers reveal their unique IP (Internet Protocol) address, making them traceable by law enforcement. But a dark web browser issues a false IP address, using a series of relays, to mask the user’s identity.
The purpose of the workshop was to define how law enforcement might bring the TOR network into legal compliance. The central dichotomy of the TOR network was laid out as the NIJ publication described the dual nature of the TOR network.
The “dark web” is an internet shadow world where the good and the bad co-exist. On the good side, the dark web provides anonymous, highly secure communication channels to shield classified government activity and protect reform agents such as human rights activists and journalists opposed by oppressive foreign regimes.
Indeed, the TOR network has been a boon to worldwide criminals, as the NIJ report laid out.
The criminal side of the dark web relies on anonymizing technology and cryptocurrency to hide its trade in an assortment of contraband such as opioids and other drugs, bomb parts, weapons large and small, child pornography, social security numbers, body parts — even criminal acts for hire.
The Protasia Foundation summed up succinctly the Yin And Yang nature of the TOR network in its comprehensive study of February 10, 2020. Protasia asked the question we ponder here: Should the Tor network be shut down?
Some of the websites hosted on the Tor network, such as the BBC News, are designed to thwart media censorship; others such as the Wikileaks submission portal are designed to protect whistleblowers. Even Pornhub recently launched a version of its site on the Tor network, for LGBTQ+ users who live in countries where their sexuality places them at risk of arrest. But some websites on the Tor network, unfortunately, also host images of child sexual abuse.
Protasia also noted that the TOR network is based on open source computer code. So, if one or more nodes were shutdown, others would simply emerge. The code to recreate TOR is well known and readily available. So, it is not practical, and maybe not even desirable, to try and shutdown the TOR network. To limit the activities of ransomware threat actors, we must make ransomware not be so profitable.
5. Who Wins and Who Loses in America if crypto currencies are no longer used to buy and sell goods and services.
The question that must be asked here is would the withdrawal of crypto currencies throughout the developed world result in such a contraction of these economies that doing so might set off a worldwide depression? The corollary to this question is whatever contraction to the world's economy that may occur by making crypto effectively worthless be a fair tradeoff for the eradication of ransomware?
As a percentage of the American economy, total value of crypto currencies is not that all that great. Statista.com estimates that "Revenue in the Cryptocurrencies market is projected to reach US$23.2bn in 2024." Coingecko.com estimates that "Bitcoin Holdings by Public Companies" is valued at $18,082,599,836. Here in the US, data shows that most crypto is held by those who are most busy promoting the value of crypto. According to Coingecko cited above, of the 28 largest publicly companies with holdings in Bitcoin, only Tesla actually makes and sells things most people would consider goods. And therefore only Tesla adds significant value to the to the overall American economy, but not in cryto — by actual manufacturing products. The publicly traded company with the largest holdings in Bitcoin is Microstrategies. According to Wikipedia, "MicroStrategy Incorporated is an American company that provides business intelligence (BI), mobile software, and cloud-based services."
Many of the world's smaller economies hold small percentages of the overall crypt market, but undeniably these are significant percentages of their own economies. InsiderMonkey.com has published a list, dated September 14, 2023, of the "Top 25 countries with the highest cryptocurrency ownership." Among these smaller economies most notably is America's ally, Ukraine. As reported by Blockworks.com, January 3, 2024, the US government holds approximately 8 billion dollars in crypto. As the report cited, US holdings in crypto have mainly come through enforcement efforts taken against Dark Web criminal organizations, such as the online narcotics emporium. Silk Road.
According to Coinweb.com, "48.8 million US adults own cryptocurrencies, representing 14.36% of the adult population." Of these Americans holding crypto, "69.6% of US residents holding crypto are in the 25-44 age group." Other Statista.com data, cites that, "The average revenue per user in the Cryptocurrencies market amounts to US$264.6 in 2024."
The majority of Americans are, however, to one degree or another skeptical about the whole notion of crypto currencies. A Pew Research report of April 10, 2023, found that: "Among the vast majority of Americans who say they have heard at least a little about cryptocurrency (88%), three-quarters say they are not confident that current ways to invest in, trade or use cryptocurrencies are reliable and safe."
Taken individually, these statistics might lead one to a conclude that crypto currencies are deeply integrated into so many of the world's economies that any contraction in crypto markets would have a devastating impact felt the world over. Most of the crypto adherents consider the financial instrument more of an investment than as a medium of exchange. As one of America's most notable and savvy investors, Warren Buffett, said in 2022, "Now if you told me you own all of the Bitcoin in the world and you offered it to me for $25, I wouldn't take it because what would I do with it? I'd have to sell it back to you one way or another. It isn't going to do anything." Jeannine Mancini, the author of the Yahoo Finance article dated March 6, 2024 from which came the quote above, summarized well Buffet's opinion of crypto, "cryptocurrencies cannot generate tangible value or income." Put another way, crypto is mostly the stuff of speculators. Moreover, I might add, crypto is also the currency of cyber criminals.
So we see that crypto currencies are not held by any one large segment of the population. In America, this is a rather insular group. Compared to the fact that all Americans are consumers of healthcare, energy, and more traditional financial services, crypto has a small constituent base. Looking at the American economy in the aggregate, the dollars lost due to a retraction in the speculative crypto markets would be paltry when compared to the real and documentable financial losses due to cybercrime.
A report from USA Today, dated February 26, 2024, titled "Cybersecurity statistics in 2024," details the staggering costs of cyber crime now, and the even worse outlook for the future. As the USA report stated, "It was estimated that the total cost of cybercrime across the world would reach $8 trillion in 2023 — and is predicted to hit $10.5 trillion in 2025." These crimes are committed almost exclusively in pursuit of profits that come in the form of crypto currencies. Cyberattacks have severe negative impacts on all industries. As the report cites, "the average cost of a data breach was $4.45 million." While a breach in the healthcare sector alone reached "the highest average data breach cost at $10.93 million."
So, we can conclude that removing crypto currencies from the world's economies would have a cost to a small group of populations, while the benefits of removing the profit for the commission of cyber crimes would have the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people.
So who losses if crypto is no longer fungible is a small group of people. Who wins is the population at large.
6. I conclude where I began. Americans faces a Machiavellian Moment requiring a return to the nation's first principles.
The current iteration of The Dispatches From the Front began in October 2021 with an article about Nicko Silar. Nicko Silar was born during a ransomware attack that crippled the hospital his mother had checked into for the purpose of delivering her baby on July 16, 2019. While nurses and staff at the hospital were forced to rely on antiquated analogue systems that many hospital staff were totally unfamiliar with, the hospital chief administrator denied that any problems existed. Unforeseen complications surrounding the delivery of Baby Nicko arose, as can happen in any delivery of a new born. Yet, since hospital staff were not able to employ their modern tools of maternity, the complications of Baby Nicko's delivery were not known at the time. Consequently, Nicko was profoundly brain-injured, required frequent oxygen supplementation, and forced to be fed through a gastrointestinal tube. Nicko Silar subsequently died on April 16, 2020.
It cannot be readily known how many times the events retold above have been acted out in our country since the Nicko Silar incident. One can only estimate similar events have occurred several times to one degree or another as ransomware attacks have permeated American medical facilities and hampered proper care for too many years now. Our nation must, therefore, return to its first principles as outlined in The Constitution of the United States of America. One of these first principles is to provide for the common defense. The threats to all of us presented by cybercrimes are a real and present danger that must not be ignored.
There are no feasible technological methods to end the threats of cybercrimes in general, and ransomware specifically. Indeed, this nation needs a Marshall Plan type of initiative to rebuild and update so much of our critical infrastructure in order to harden systems against cyberattacks. There is, however, no such plan on the horizon. The only means to cripple the crooks that attack Americans daily is to remove the profit motive for their crimes. That means making crypto currencies effectively worthless.
When government and society at large work only to the benefit of a few elites, then instead of a democratic republic, we have devolved into oligarchy. The life of one child is far more valuable to preserve and protect than any fever dream fantasies of a group of ne'er-do-wells who might be the losers of any such initiative to make crypto currencies effectively worthless.
I say: End Ransomware now. The costs of allowing these crimes to continue will be far away greater than any intuitive to end ransomware. And let the chips fall where they may.
Gerald Reiff
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