For a long time, ransomware hackers have been looking for ways to move a lot of money without being tracked or caught by loopholes, and bitcoin has supported this because of its fast, easy process and the difficulty involved in tracing.
With the Colonial Pipeline and the recent JBS attack, which paid millions of dollars in bitcoin to retrieve its systems, bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have created a way for cyber hackers to extort huge sums from private and public organizations.
If the hackers are based in countries like Russia, it will be difficult to track down this money.
Although cryptocurrencies are held in “public ledgers,” meaning that anyone can watch online, the fact that those involved in a transaction are disguised with a random number allows hackers to move the currency from one anonymous account to another, making it difficult and almost impossible to track.
For more information, read the original story in NPR.