Task Force to Tackle Ransomware

Ransom demands are escalating, but a public-private partnership formed last December is trying to devise a coordinated response. Among the members are Amazon Web Services, Cisco, Microsoft the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and the United Kingdom National Crime agency. The level of buy-in from government bodies that can effect change will be crucial. The US has struggled to produce a truly coordinated response to ransomware. “We need to start treating these issues as core national security and economic security issues, and not as little boutique issues,” says Chris Painter, a former Justice Department and White House cybersecurity official who contributed to the report as president of the Global Forum on Cyber Expertise Foundation. “I’m hopeful that we’re getting there, but it’s always been an uphill battle trying to get people’s attention for these really big issues.”