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Ransomware Brings Cybersecurity to Centerstage

Recent high-profile disruptions of a major meatpacking company and the largest U.S. fuel pipeline have thrust ransomware to the forefront of national discussion.

ransomware 2318381 640FBI Director Christopher Wray compared the current cybersecurity threat with the challenge of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, as The Wall Street Journal reports. In an interview, Wray told the Journal that the FBI has been probing about 100 varieties of ransomware, many with links to Russia-based hackers.

A top lawmaker called for more transparency around ransoms paid to hackers, as Bloomberg reports. Senate Intelligence Committee chair Mark Warner (D-Va.), speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said, “Not only are the companies often not reporting that they are attacked, but they’re not reporting the ransomware payments.”

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo said that ransomware attacks “are here to say,” as Politico reports. Speaking on ABC’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos,” the former Rhode Island governor said businesses should prepare for future threats.

The comments came as the Biden administration has been calling on corporate leaders to step up their cybersecurity measures after the attacks on meatpacking giant JBS and the Colonial Pipeline, as Reuters reports.

Anne Neuberger, cybersecurity adviser at the National Security Council, wrote a letter outlining steps companies could take, noting that ransomware attacks have become much bigger and more abundant. Shoring up the nation’s ability to withstand cyberattacks is near the top of President Joe Biden’s agenda, the administration has said. “But we can’t do it alone,” said Jen Psaki, White House press secretary. 

Biden will discuss the JBS attack with Russia’s President Vlaidimir Putin when the two leaders meet in Geneva on June 16, the White House has said, according to CNN.

As The Washington Post reports, the cybersecurity threat has become more visible recently by affecting everyday people. Robert Lee, CEO of industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos, told the Post, “It’s not only that it’s getting worse, but it’s the worst possible time for it to happen.”

CBS’s “60 Minutes” also highlighted the ransomware threat. The program noted that the problem of cybercrime is as significant to the FBI today as banks were in the 1930s.

The Senate’s sergeant-at-arms told CNN that she worries more about a cyberattack on the U.S. Capitol than another insurrection like on January 6. Karen Gibson, the Senate’s top law enforcement officer, said, “It is truly the cyber threat that keeps me up at night.”

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