Security News > 2021 > April > Multi-Gov Task Force Plans to Take Down the Ransomware Economy

Ransomware has reached crisis levels across business sectors and across the globe, but a public-private Ransomware Task Force aims to stem the tide of attacks by disrupting the crooks' business model.

In all, it details what RTF considers to be "a full, comprehensive strategy to stem the ransomware tide - ranging from dealing with the complexities of the ransomware epidemic, to the role of cyber-insurance, cryptocurrency and safe havens for threat actors," according to Team Cymru, one of the cybersecurity firms signed onto the project.

The Framework also calls for establishing a ransomware incident response network with a standard format for reporting ransomware incidents.

"The idea to create a Ransomware Response Fund to support victims in refusing to make ransomware payments is astonishing at first sight," Dirk Schrader, global vice president of security research at New Net Technologies, told Threatpost.

"The Task Force will help the Department of Justice take a coordinated and focused approach to what has become a widespread scourge of ransomware and other cyber-extortion," Alex Iftimie, attorney at Morrison & Foerster, told Threatpost.

"We've seen ransomware actors escalating their targets to large enterprises and demanding $50 million in ransom. These are big numbers that impact large enterprises, but so far, we haven't seen an escalation to the most critical targets. There is no reason to believe that ransomware actors will restrain themselves to protect innocent lifewhat comes next is unknown, but what could come next gets scary pretty quick."

News URL

https://threatpost.com/gov-task-force-ransomware-economy/165715/