Ransomware continues to rise as nations struggle to address payouts Ransomware is thriving, writes senior editor of ASIS International’s Security Management magazine Megan Gates, and addressing it will require a multinational and multipronged approach. The nabbing of the Lindbergh baby Charles in 1932 made kidnapping across U.S. state lines a federal offense punishable by death. But curiously, it did not prohibit victims from paying ransoms to extortionists.
Megan Gates is Senior Editor at ASIS International’s Security Management magazine. She joined the Security Management team in 2013 after graduating from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism.
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This is becoming increasingly problematic as ransomware—an attack method where threat actors infiltrate a victim’s network, encrypt his or her data, and hold it hostage until a ransom amount is paid—is thriving. Between January 2021 and June 2021, the total value of suspicious activity reported in ransomware-related Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) reached $590 million—up from $416 million for all of 2020, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.
Bitcoin is the most common ransomware-related payment method for reported transactions, which reach a mean monthly average amount of $66.4 million, the department said in the report Financial Trend Analysis: Ransomware Trends in Bank Secrecy Act Data Between January 2021 and June 2021, published in October 2021. “The transition to remote and online work in response to COVID-19 has also exacerbated risks and vulnerabilities of businesses to cyberattacks, such as ransomware,” the department found. “Attacks on small municipalities and healthcare organisations have also increased, typically due to perceived weaker security controls and higher propensity of these victims to pay the ransom because of the criticality of their services, particularly during a global health pandemic.”
February/March 2022
