After a slew of ransomware attacks on US companies, the US government has taken the cyber threat seriously now. While the President is all set to talk about this with Putin soon, for Russia is the harbor for many ransomware groups, the DOJ and FBI sent out notices to corporates on dealing with such adverse incidents.
They have formed a new task force dedicated to dealing with this and consider them treating as important as terrorist attacks.
The US to Treat Ransomware Attacks as Terrorist Attacks
Ransomware attacks on JBS and Colonial Pipeline last month have intrigued the US government more than ever. As they are public-facing and attacks against them disrupted the general public, the US government has now decided to tighten its efforts in handling such cases in the future.
In this pursuit, Joe Biden has already revealed dealing with the Russian president, as from where most of the ransomware groups house in.
Also, they have formed a new ransomware task force to be the first point of reporting for victims and urged companies to report as soon as they have learned about the attack.
Apart from this, the FBI said the government’s fight against these ransomware attacks is more like the situation after the 9/11 attack in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.
Further, they said the attorneys should treat the ransomware attacks as important as the terrorist attacks. On the other hand, the Department of Justice has issued internal notices to corporates, asking them to be prepared for any adverse attacks.
Also, I reminded them to follow important security practices like having offline backups and various authentication levels.
#REvil ransomware: "We will work harder" pic.twitter.com/ghHIR6lhgT
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Just as they are struggling to contain the attacks, the REvil gang, a popular ransomware group, is also working hard to be at its best. As per the interview given to Dmitry Smilyanets, the REvil group said;
“We do not want to play politics, but since we are being drawn into it, it is good. Even if they pass a law prohibiting the payment of a ransom in the United States or put us on the terrorist list, this will not affect our work in any way. On the contrary, the accesses in the US companies will be sold for next to nothing, and we will make preferential terms for partners.
Will the US pay all damages to all companies in the US? Or will the business cope on its own, like the CI? Time will tell. We are not going anywhere, we are not going anywhere. We will work harder, harder and harder.”
