The US administration has issued warning that overseas companies executing legitimate virtual currencies operations in reality, Russia-backed disruptors, with the potential to influence election news in the USA.
The inference was drawn from a statement made by an expert in cybersecurity, before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing. The consultant, Scott Dueweke said that “Foreign parties, state actors and potentially, others interested in affecting U.S. political processes need anonymity.”
The expert added that “The exchange of digital assets can occur without the need for a central issuing authority… tailor-made for money laundering.”
Russian Red in US Elections News
The discussions also highlighted that the elections in 2016 were not as tampered by the Russians and it was a limited attempt in many ways. However, with the advent of cryptocurrencies and virtual currencies in Russia, they would have a more formidable stake in the future.
The Senator’s reason that the evolved technologies in use for virtual currencies are powerful and highly disruptive in its potential to confusing voters. These technologies can be used by detractors to actually disrupt the voting processes itself, claim the administrators.
The hearing was ahead of the general elections to be held in the country in November. Many states in the country have already completed the primary and the runoff contests. The authorities engaged in the conducting of these elections are concerned in protecting their systems, from such Red intrusions, it is opined.
Many in the US political setup believe that the election news and the opinions formed by the electorate can be influenced to a great extent by the crypto-oligarchs of Russia. They fear that they would inundate the entire election systems to influence through powerful computing technologies, the voting patterns in the country.
Many view the continued existence of legitimate foreign exchange and currency operators in the country as conduits or fronts for the Russians to make in-roads into the computer systems of people across the USA.
They expect the immense power these crypto-miners possess and their networks spread across different states of the country to change voter sentiment. Observers feel in the previous elections of 2016, the Russian government lacked both the technology resources as well as the game plan to intrude the systems engaged in the election processes.
However, four years down the line, and the arrival of more computing power it would be a strategic option for countries like Russia, with their pools of technical talent, coin-mining capacities in the USA operating as legal entities to manipulate the election news in the USA at different levels.
Shell Companies
According to Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, these virtual currency operators are actually shell companies for overseas political operators. He states that such companies have a game plan to implement in the USA and for the most part such companies become open ‘pathways’ through whom foreign administrations will operate in the country.
Sheldon Whitehouse is a Rhode Island Democrat. He is definite that American elections will no longer be the same again as “Vladimir Putin and his oligarchs can use the exact same tactics that American special interests use to spend anonymous money in our elections.”
