Law enforcement and regulators best take a measured approach in tackling the potential increase in the use of virtual currencies to finance terrorist activities, as there is still scant evidence the nascent technology will become a preferred method of cash transfer and other means of funding remain readily available and hard to track, said a U.K. intelligence think-tank.

Virtual currencies--a type of digital money that bears an encrypted computer code that can be transferred between internet users across borders without the need for a regulated financial institution--have an obvious appeal for those wanting to make illicit transactions, but so far there has been only one specific incident reported of its use by terrorists, said David Carlisle, an independent consultant writing for the Royal United Services Institute, an international defense and security think-tank in London. The Indonesian government disclosed in early January that it had detected instances of virtual currency transfers from a known terrorist to fund Daesh--also known as Islamic State--triggering alarm bells in the anti-terrorism finance community. But security enforcers need to keep “perspective,” wrote Mr. Carlisle, who previously worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. “Treating cryptocurrencies as an exceptional threat creates the misleading impression that more conventional financial products are not already equally, or more, vulnerable to terrorist exploitation.”

Citing a recent research paper by RUSI, Mr. Carlisle noted that small cells and lone wolf actors need fairly small amounts of money to fund their activities, and they already have “a number of reliable financing streams” that are hard to trace, such as student and payday loans, welfare benefits and cash. “With such simple funding available, terrorists may not need to rush into cryptocurrencies,” he said. What’s more, the Indonesian case reveals that law enforcement can break the secrecy of such transactions, especially of those using blockchain, the most commonly used ledger of virtual currency transactions. Given the benefits that the technology offers to people who don’t have access to bank accounts, regulators should tread carefully to “harness the promise of technological innovation while also managing financial crime risks that are still only taking shape,” said Mr. Carlisle.

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EXCLUSIVE ON RISK AND COMPLIANCE JOURNAL

Crisis of the Week: PwC. The accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP takes the crisis center stage after its representative at the Oscars made a mistake that led to the wrong movie being announced for he Best Picture award. The mistake, which played out over seven minutes with a world-wide audience watching, is considered the biggest blunder in the 89-year history of the event and could lead to PwC losing its account with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

"La La Land" producer Jordan Horowitz, left, presenter Warren Beatty, center, and host Jimmy Kimmel right, look at an envelope announcing "Moonlight" as best picture at the Oscars on Feb. 26, 2017, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Illustration: Chris Pizzello/Invision/Associated Press

COMPLIANCE

U.S. Senate repeals labor rule. The Senate empowered President Donald Trump to overturn an as yet-implemented Obama-era regulation that sought to require firms that bid on government contracts to disclose past labor-law violations, the WSJ reports. The House already passed such a measure, which gives the president the ability to scrap regulations put into place in the final months of the prior administration’s term. Senators voted, 49-48, Monday evening to apply the Congressional Review Act to rules implementing the Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces executive order.

U.S. to delay enforcing college rules. The Trump administration said Monday it would delay implementing new rules designed to punish career-training schools that leave students with high levels of debt but weak job prospects, the WSJ reports. The move delays new rules known as “gainful employment” that formed a key piece of former President Barack Obama’s higher-education agenda. It could ultimately help for-profit colleges avoid sanctions if they prove the government data underpinning the rules is flawed.

VW expects to act against more employees. Reuters reports Volkswagen AG Chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch said the company expects to take disciplinary action against employees beyond those already punished in response to its emissions-cheating scandal.

Thailand starts crackdown on ride services. Reuters reports Thailand has begun a crackdown on drivers for ride-hailing services Uber and Grab, including imposing more fines.

DATA SECURITY

Where the cyber threats are. The expanding threat of cyberattacks on U.S. government and business interests is of increasing concern to officials responsible for our nation’s security. Gerald Seib, the WSJ’s executive Washington editor, discussed the threats and efforts to counter them with former U.S. Chief Information Security Officer Gregory Touhill, and James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

James Woolsey, former Central Intelligence director and former U.S. Chief Information Security Officer Brig. Gen. Gregory Touhill speak with the WSJ's Gerald Seib at the CIO Network in San Francisco, Feb. 28, 2017. Illustration: Nikki Ritcher

New technology poses cyber threat. The evolution of cloud and mobile technologies, along with the growing number of internet-connected devices, is presenting new opportunities for hackers and new cybersecurity challenges for businesses. Two cybersecurity executives—John Hering, the co-founder and executive chairman of Lookout Inc., and Andrew Rubin, co-founder and chief executive of Illumio—sat down with WSJ deputy technology editor Christina Passariello to discuss the changing landscape.

GOVERNANCE

State Street wants women on boards. Index-fund giant State Street Global Advisors on Tuesday will begin pushing big companies to put more women on their boards, initially demanding change at those firms without any female directors, the WSJ reports. The money manager, which is a unit of State Street Corp., says it will vote against board members charged with nominating new directors if they don’t soon make strides at adding women. Firms won’t have an exact quota to be in compliance with State Street’s mandate, but must prove they attempted to improve a lack of diversity. A firm that doesn’t add women, for example, would have to prove to State Street it attempted to cast a wider net and set diversity goals.

OPERATIONS

U.S. to suspect fast-track visas. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said it plans to temporarily suspend fast-track processing for the skilled-worker visa program, a move that could slow down the process of hiring foreign workers for U.S. companies, the WSJ reports. Starting April 3 and running for up to six months, the agency will no longer allow H-1B applicants to pay an additional fee of $1,225 to get a response within 15 days—a program known as premium processing. Regular processing, where the fee varies based on the type of employment being sought, can last between three and six months.