Security News > 2021 > May > Ransomware Gangs Get More Aggressive Against Law Enforcement
The increasingly defiant attacks on law enforcement agencies underscore how little ransomware gangs fear repercussions.
Ransomware gangs have been leaking sensitive data from victims for well over a year, but experts said they've not seen such aggressive new tactics used before against police departments.
Making the ransomware attacks potentially more damaging, police are now able to collect and store more personal information than ever before through advances in surveillance equipment and technologies such as artificial intelligence and facial recognition software.
April Doss, the executive director of the Institute for Technology Law & Policy at Georgetown University Law School, said laws and regulations about how police collect, retain and secure that data are largely unsettled.
Statistics of how many police departments have been hit by ransomware attacks are hard to come by, as is information on whether departments ever pay a ransom.
Prosecutors in Stuart, Florida, told local media last year they had to drop a case against suspected drug dealers after a local police department's files were encrypted by a ransomware gang.