Senators re-up bill to expand Secret Service’s financial cybercrime authorities

A bipartisan pair of senators is taking another shot at their bill to expand the U.S. Secret Service’s investigative powers for financial cybercrime probes.

The Combatting Money Laundering in Cyber Crime Act from Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, would update federal law to strengthen the Secret Service’s authority, enabling the agency to look into criminal activity tied to digital assets.

“Dangerous criminals are constantly changing their tactics and using new technology to avoid detection,” Cortez Masto said in a statement. “Our law enforcement agencies need to adapt to keep communities safe. I will continue to fight to pass this bipartisan legislation that would help the Secret Service more effectively combat cybercrime.”

Under current law, the Secret Service is empowered to investigate cybercrimes that threaten national security, but those that are conducted via unlicensed money transmitting businesses fall outside the agency’s purview.

The legislation from Cortez Masto and Grassley, both members of the Senate Finance Committee, addresses that gap by allowing Secret Service members to probe digital asset transactions tied to transnational cyber criminal activity.

“As money laundering schemes continue to evolve, so must our capacity to combat them,” Grassley said in a statement. “By enhancing Secret Service’s authority to investigate criminal digital assets, our bill significantly improves law enforcement’s ability to effectively anticipate, identify and prevent cybercrime.”

Cortez Masto and Grassley first introduced this bill last July, but the legislation didn’t make it out of committee. The Nevada Democrat told CyberScoop at the time that “the funding of criminal activity through digital assets poses a direct threat to the security and safety of our nation.”

The Secret Service’s history with combatting cybercrime dates back to 2004 and the launch of its internal Cyber Investigative Section, one of the U.S. government’s first units dedicated to cybercrime. 

Five years ago, the agency created its Cyber Fraud Task Forces. Since then, there’s been a steady drumbeat from current and former federal cyber officials calling for the Secret Service, FBI and Treasury Department to invest in the hiring of agents with cyber skills to pursue financial investigations.

In January 2024, the Secret Service said it would relaunch its Cyber Investigations Advisory Board, a 16-member body tasked with overhauling financial cybercrime investigative practices at the agency.

The Department of Justice and Treasury Department have warned in recent years about the increasing frequency with which digital assets are being used in ransomware attacks, fraud schemes, money laundering and other crimes. 

Cortez Masto has had a particular focus on cybercrime and cryptocurrency, co-sponsoring the Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act and helping to get the FinCEN Improvement Act — which strengthened the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network’s powers — passed and signed into law.