"Justice Department to Launch Ransomware Taskforce"

Ransomware authors are continuing to get better at encrypting victims' sensitive information, demanding ransoms, and threatening to leak targets' data online. There has also been an increase in ransom demands, with multiple ransomware groups collaborating on underground forums to target large organizations. The FBI recently revealed that it had received almost 800,000 cybercrime complaints in 2020, including COVID-19-themed cyberattacks. The agency reported losses of an estimated $4.2 billion due to these cybercrimes. The number of ransomware attacks is also continuing to grow, as indicated by the 2,474 ransomware incidents reported in 2020. The total number of complaints about ransomware attacks increased by 69 percent from 2019 to 2020. Therefore, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) will launch a new task force aimed at identifying the root cause of increasing ransomware attacks in the US. The initiative includes combined efforts across the federal government to track and disrupt ransomware operators. The new task force will take down servers that spread ransomware, disrupt cybercriminal groups' performance of ransomware campaigns, and more. The DoJ also plans to dedicate more resources to training and intelligence sharing, as well as reaching out to organizations in the private sector to gain a better understanding of ransomware and extortion threats. This article continues to discuss the growth in ransomware attacks and the DoJ's plans to launch a new task force to combat ransomware operators. 

CISO MAG reports "Justice Department to Launch Ransomware Taskforce"