Security News > 2021 > August > Expert: Governments and businesses must come together to combat ransomware threat
Adam Flatley: I think what really needs to be done, and what has started to happen recently, is that we need to bring all of the components of the private industry and the government together to combat this threat in an organized, intel-driven campaign that is targeting the actors behind these ransomware operations and working to dismantle those organizations through using all the tools available to the private industry and governments around the world.
Adam Flatley: It was a really big honor to be part of the Ransomware Task Force that IST put together.
They really took a good, holistic look at what is the nature of the problem, and then how do we build a no-kidding-strategy to combat this.
How can we have an impact on cryptocurrency to be able to make that more trackable and harder for criminals to hide within and make it easier to seize payments that were illegitimate? All the way to the part that was really missing is really driving an aggressive operation, targeting the actors behind them and putting pressure on governments that are sheltering these actors, to be able to start bringing these organizations down.
If you're caught in a double extortion scheme, you really got to think about is it worth paying the ransom, or would it be better to just take the hit and not be funding these organizations?
Then there are others that could really be ruined by it, and we shouldn't prevent them from paying the ransom if that's what they have you do.