Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin may be targetted in the fight against ransomware
Ex-attorney general at the US Department of Justice thinks payments will be the key to fighting off these hack attacks
Many crimes can be solved by following the money, and that may hold true for the growth of ransomware attacks — though the money itself may be different.
Countering the increasing use of ransomware — malware that attacks computers and networks and encrypts files, which criminals then demand payment in order to decrypt — may require action against hard-to-trace cryptocurrencies like bitcoin that are often used to pay the criminals behind the attacks, according to David S. Kris, former assistant attorney general at the US Department of Justice’s national-security division.
“I think the way to attack this — and I think the way you’re probably going to see some legal change over the next few years — is on the other end, with respect to the payments,” Kris said during the question-and-answer session of a Center for Strategic and International Studies panel event.
“And as I understand it — again, without having studied it too extensively — is that, you know, fintech is what is enabling this, cryptocurrency,” Kris added.
Reports of ransomware use have increased considerably in recent months.
“In the last six to 12 months, this has just gone so aggressively to the business environment,” Marcin Kleczynski, CEO of cybersecurity company Malwarebytes, told Business Insider in August. “We see companies from 25 people all the way to 250,000 people getting hit with ransomware.”