Inside the FBI's quiet 'ransomware summit'

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

https://www.cyberscoop.com/fbi-ransomware-summit/

By Sean Lyngaas
CYBERSCOOP
November 6, 2019

In March, officials in sparsely populated Jackson County, Georgia, made a 
painful decision. Rather than rebuild their networks from scratch, they paid 
$400,000 to hackers to get the county’s data back.

The six-figure amount — eclipsed by a nearly $600,000 payment made by a Florida 
city in June — is symptomatic of a much larger problem. Across the U.S., poorly 
secured businesses, local governments, and schools have lost millions of 
dollars to attackers who can cheaply buy access to ransomware-as-a-service kits 
on underground forums.

The problem is by some measures growing more acute: Over 100 public-sector 
ransomware attacks have been reported in 2019 alone, double the amount in 2018.

To help stem the tide of file-locking attacks, the FBI quietly convened the 
country’s top ransomware experts in an unprecedented, closed-door conference in 
September. The briefings, which occurred over two days, were a recognition by 
law enforcement officials that their ability to better investigate and 
prosecute ransomware cases hinges on the private sector sharing more data with 
them.

[...]

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