Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) and FIA Cyber Crime are struggling to determine the mechanism for blocking cryptocurrency websites.
The PTA has written a letter to the FIA Cyber Crime Wing asking for more information about links and the law that allows cryptocurrency websites to be blocked. According to PTA sources, the Cyber Crime Wing of the federal watchdog has identified a list of 1,600 websites and asked PTA to block them, but the problem is most of the websites or links are already down. Some websites do other business and have side links to cryptocurrency.
Furthermore, there is no section of the Prevention of Electronic Crimes Act, 2016, the Foreign Exchange Remittance Act, 1947 (FERA), or the Anti-Money Laundering Act 2010 (AMLA) dealing with the illegal use or misuse of cryptocurrencies.
The telecom regulator is unclear about the law under which these websites and links should be blocked, and the PTA has asked for more details about these websites. The FIA Cyber Crime had written a letter to PTA for blocking 1,600 websites and links.
According to FIA Cyber Crime sources, the FIA has compiled lists of cryptocurrency dealers and operators, and there will soon be a crackdown in this regard. FIA sources claim there has been no progress in the investigations as knowledge of technology is also an issue.
It is noteworthy that Binance experts help the FIA Cyber Crime team to understand the technology in this regard. According to experts, cryptocurrency uses blockchain technology. Someone who wants to research cryptocurrency business needs to have knowledge of blockchain technology. In the future, blockchain experts will be needed in FIA Cyber Crime Wing to investigate these matters.
As a reminder, the Federal Investigating Agency launched a criminal investigation a few weeks ago after receiving numerous complaints against an ongoing scam where investors were tricked into sending money from Binance wallets to unknown third-party wallets.
