Task Force Seeks to Disrupt Ransomware Payments
Summary: A new industry task force backed by Amazon, Cisco, FireEye, McAfee, Microsoft and dozens of other firms, alongside the U.S. Department of Justice, Europol and the U.K. National Crime Agency, delivered an 81-page report to the Biden administration calling for an international coalition against ransomware criminals and a global network of ransomware investigation hubs. The report urges the White House to treat digital extortion as a national security threat and recommends measures including mandatory reporting of ransom payments to law enforcement and Treasury, KYC and anti-money laundering rules for cryptocurrency exchanges, and a federal cyber response and recovery fund, citing Emsisoft data that almost 2,400 U.S. governments, healthcare facilities and schools were ransomware victims in 2020.
Why it matters: The task force explicitly rejects banning ransom payments for now, warning attackers would respond by targeting organizations considered more essential to society, such as healthcare providers and local governments - so the near-term pressure lands on reporting requirements and Treasury's sanctions exposure for victims who pay.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Data Breaches
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