Former CIA Official Claims Blockchain Represents A Threat to US National Security

Andrew Bustamante, an ex-CIA intelligence officer, claimed blockchain is a “super powerful” threat to America’s national security. Bustamante, founder of the Everyday Espionage training platform that publishes tips and tricks based on his experience and knowledge of espionage, made his remarks in a subreddit thread on Dec. 22.

Bustamante, who is also reportedly a US Air Force combat veteran, former CIA intelligence officer and Fortune 10 company advisor, mentioned blockchain in response to a question in a subreddit thread on Reddit. This subreddit is dedicated to Bustamante’s Everyday Espionage, a platform described as an “integrated education and training platform that teaches international espionage tactics to benefit everyday life.”

One Redditor (user on Reddit), asked Bustamante what he thought represents “the biggest threat to America [sic] national security in the coming years?” The same Redditor went on to give several possible answers including “Russia,” “climate change,” “Iran” or “North Korea?”

Bustamante did not agree with any of the possible answers above, instead shocking everyone with a different response:

“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.”

While Bustamante did not further expand on his remarks, he replied to one other Redditor’s response, who asked him for clarification regarding blockchain versus developments in quantum computing.

Bustamante’s response to that Redditor initiated a discussion of the possibility that quantum computing will change the cryptographic protection that supports blockchain, thus specifically attributing Bustamante’s “bring it down” to an argument along this vein. Others meanwhile attempted to deduce different meanings based on the limited information given in Bustamante’s comment.

One of the Redditor’s on the thread suggested that Bustamante’s remarks could refer to “the persistent possibility of untraceable, anonymous transactions [that] can happen” on blockchains as being one type of national security threat allegedly posed by the technology. Another pointed to the potential for “falsified” data, i.e. hijacking the blockchain for the purposes of disinformation, which would allegedly become all the more destructive when stored in an immutable blockchain-based system.

This incident is a reminder of previous incidents where blockchain and the intelligence community made headlines. For instance, in July, when the US Department of Justice (DoJ) released an indictment charging 12 Russian nationals with committing federal crimes funded by cryptocurrencies with the aim of “interfering” in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections. Later in the year, the US DoJ charged 7 Russian Intelligence Officers with crypto-funded hacking attacks. The indictment was filed by the grand jury at the Western District of Pennsylvania in October.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg, as it where, concerning the dialogue surrounding the potential weaknesses of using blockchain tech. We at FINTERRA however subscribe to the “with great power comes great responsibility” mantra. All our products services are intended for more noble causes and we are constantly monitoring these to ensure our systems don’t get hijacked for uses other then they are intended.