Former CIA Official: Blockchain Poses A Significant threat to U.S. National Securities

Former CIA and intelligence officer Andrew Bustamante have reportedly stated that Blockchain technology poses a major threat to America’s national security. Bustamante, who has a knack for publishing life hacks of espionage on Reddit made his position known on a recent subreddit thread.

Answering questions by a Redditor who asked Bustamante about what posed the biggest threat to America in the coming years, Bustamante remarked that, “Block-chain technology [sic.] No joke. Super powerful stuff, and the first one to figure out how to hack it, manipulate it or bring it down wins.”

Although the former CIA official did not buttress his remarks, he acknowledges another commenter’s response who asked him to clarify his position regarding blockchain versus developments in quantum computing. To this, the EX-CIA official responded with “fair point!!!”

His exclamations further spurred discussions of the possibility that quantum computing is superior to cryptography and will forever alter the cryptographic protections blockchain technology enjoys. While the discussions were going on, others gave their own opinions based on the scant information in Bustamante’s comment.

One commenter opined that Bustamante's remarks could refer to “the persistent possibility of untraceable, anonymous transactions [that] can happen” on blockchains as being one of the greatest threat the technology poses. Even so, another commenter pointed out that potential for “falsified” data — i.e. hijacking the blockchain for the purposes of disinformation poses another significant threat to the national security of America.

It is important to note that the last time blockchain made headlines as regards its security threat was in October when the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) indicted seven officers from Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) with crypto-funded global hacking and related disinformation operations.

Notably, the DoJ had In July this year indicted 12 individuals affiliated with GRU for using crypto to fuel efforts to override computer networks associated with the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and U.S. elections in general.