NEW YORK, June 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Companies
bracing for cyberattacks on their data systems may be driving up
the price of Bitcoin, attendees at a
panel moderated by Jim Cramer at The Deal's
Corporate Governance conference in New
York heard on Monday. The event was hosted by The Deal and
BoardEx, business units of TheStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:
TST).
During a panel discussion of how companies can best manage cyber
risk, Kirill Tatarinov, CEO of cloud
security company Citrix Systems, told the gathering that companies
in the U.K. were storing Bitcoin to pay hackers who might attack
their systems with ransomware. The most significant recent attack,
known as WannaCry, required ransom to be paid in the digital
currency.
"We've seen people pay up after ransomware attacks," said
Tatarinov. "We've seen people who are proactively bulking up on
Bitcoin anticipating those attacks. This is happening."
The observation prompted panel moderator Jim Cramer, founder of TheStreet, Inc., to
wonder aloud if that wasn't what was driving up the price of
Bitcoin. The price of Bitcoin jumped from $1,692 on May 12,
when WannaCry hit, to recently trade at $2,785.
During a keynote interview with Cramer, Delaware Supreme Court
Chief Justice Leo E. Strine Jr.
observed that activist investors' intentions too often fail to
coincide with those of ordinary investors. Strine said the loudest
voices come not from index funds, but from activist funds.
"I think it's very frustrating for companies because you're not
always sure that the people who are speaking really are aligned
with investors," said Chief Justice
Strine.
Throughout the day, panelists debated and answered questions on
corporate governance hot buttons including how to contain activist
investors, the merits of Snap Inc.'s non-voting share structure and
how ransomware fears may be driving up Bitcoin's price, among other
topics.
Other participants who shared their perspective and insight at
the conference included Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock
III, Delaware Court of Chancery, Udi Mokady, Chairman &
CEO, CyberArk, Gary Steele, Chief
Executive Officer, Proofpoint, Inc., and Fritz van Paasschen,
Former CEO, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.
The full speaker roster and panel topics can be viewed here.
The Deal's Corporate Governance 2017 conference was sponsored by
Paul Weiss, Morgan Stanley, PwC, and
Kekst. For sponsorship and speaking inquiries about next year's
event, please contact Jonathan McReynolds (212-321-5259;
jmcreynolds at thedeal.com).
About The Deal
The Deal (www.thedeal.com)
provides actionable, intraday coverage of mergers, acquisitions and
all other changes in corporate control to institutional investors,
private equity, hedge funds and the firms that serve them. The Deal
is a business unit of TheStreet, Inc. (NASDAQ:
TST, www.t.st), a leading financial news and information
provider. Other business units include TheStreet
(www.thestreet.com), which is celebrating its
20th year of producing unbiased business news and
market analysis; BoardEx (www.boardex.com), the leading
relationship mapping service of corporate directors and officers;
and RateWatch (www.rate-watch.com) which supplies rate and fee data
from banks and credit unions across the U.S.
Contact: Jon Kostakopoulos,
212-321-5561, Jon.Kostakopoulos
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SOURCE TheStreet, Inc.