To tackle this issue, the US needs cybersecurity improvements in the public and private sectors to defend against these attacks. But that's a daunting challenge and our solutions will always be imperfect. We also have a non-technological response that is available and easier to implement: Stop organizations that operate in the US from making ransom payments. If hackers know that US entities can't or won't pay ransoms, that will make them much less attractive targets.
But ransom payments also create negative externalities. Ransom payments finance the groups that commit these attacks, and they encourage them to make more attacks. When you pay a ransom, it hurts everybody else, by making future attacks more likely. Activities that cause negative externalities — like companies pouring pollutants into rivers — call for government regulations. So the government should stop companies from pouring ransom payments into ransomware organizations.noting that paying such ransomsbe illegal, if the entity receiving the ransom is sanctioned. But this isn't enough.
Organizations will have good reason to believe they can't pay an illegal ransom quietly and get away with it. And the government can make clear that ransom payersThe government just needs to dial those punishments up high enough that paying the ransom starts to look more painful than not paying it. And we can offer whistleblower payments to encourage people to snitch when organizations they work for — or organizations that are their clients — pay ransoms.
All that said, while I hate crypto, I understand how popular it is, and we probably don't need to get rid of it to fix theproblem we're discussing here.
jbarro They should just get Norton.