Tornado Cash Joins the Club of Blacklisted Companies in the U.S.

Cryptocurrency mixing service, Twister Money, has been blacklisted in the USA. Nevertheless, this is not the primary time when the U.S. has imposed a ban on an organization. The next firms have additionally been slapped by the authorities. 

Twister Money

Twister Money is a web site that gives its clients the choice of concealing the supply of their cryptocurrencies when they’re concerned in a transaction The US Treasury Division has banned all Individuals from utilizing the web site as a result of it performed a pivotal position within the laundering of billion {dollars} value of crypto. It had been one of many main instruments exploited by hackers, probably the most notable one being the $625 million hack of Axie Infinity’s Ronin Community in March by the Lazarus Group based mostly in North Korea.  

Some welcome the ban as a crucial measure to fight crypto crime, however privateness advocates strongly oppose it. As an example, Twister Money co-founder Roman Semenov tweeted that his Github account has been suspended. He added, ”Is writing an open supply code unlawful now?”

Blender.io

Just like Twister Money, Blender.io is a cryptocurrency mixer that was created in 2017. It obtained a sanction from the Workplace of Overseas Belongings Management of the U.S. Division of Treasury in 2022 for allegedly serving to the Lazarus Group, a gaggle of hackers linked to the North Korean authorities. In response to the Treasury Division, this was the primary penalty they’d ever issued on a cryptocurrency mixer.

Pegasus

Pegasus spyware and adware was designed to sneak into targets with out being observed, enabling intelligence companies to entry the goal’s information with out being traced. Final 12 months, the US Division of Commerce introduced that American firms would now not promote their know-how to NSO, the corporate that constructed Pegasus.

DJI And Different Chinese language Corporations

DJI is a drone producer based mostly in China. The U.S. Treasury Division restricted DJI’s operations final 12 months for his or her position in human rights abuses in opposition to Uyghur Muslims and different ethnic and non secular minorities in Xinjiang. This prevented American buyers from buying or promoting shares. Mind Nelson, the undersecretary for terrorism and monetary intelligence, stated then that American buyers had been against such actions.

In 2020, beneath the Trump administration, 23 Chinese language firms had been added to the blacklisted firms. Among the many banned firms had been Amryfly, Beijing E-Science, Kindriod, Leon Know-how, Wingel Zhang, and others.  The ban was additionally associated to the violations of human rights in northwest Xinjiang.

Kaspersky Lab

Earlier this 12 months, the US Federal Communications Fee blacklisted Kaspersky Lab because of cyberespionage, nationwide safety, and Ukraine invasion. This disenchanted the corporate as a result of the authorities strictly forbade its antivirus software program. It stated in an announcement that the choice was not based mostly on technical evaluation however somewhat on political issues.