To address the threat of ransomware, the US Treasury Department is teaming up with Israel.
The US Deputy Treasury Secretary met with two Israeli officials, the Minister of Finance and the Director-General of the National Cyber Directorate, to officially establish the joint venture.
The venture will be in charge of “the creation of risk mitigation technologies for law enforcement to improve the efficiency of public sector analytical and enforcement operations” as well as financial difficulties.
Actions made
The White House recently hosted a virtual meeting to discuss the growing threat of ransomware around the world. Representatives from Israel were on the panel.
The US Department of Homeland Security and the US Department of Justice together developed a website in July 2021 to combat the threat of ransomware.
StopRansomware.gov is the first website to bring together the resources of all federal government departments, including reporting instructions and new threat warnings.
What is ransomware, and how does it work?
When a hacker encrypts user files and demands a ransom to recover them, this is known as ransomware. The ransomware is sometimes denominated in cryptocurrency.
The use of bitcoins in ransomware is becoming increasingly common. The anonymity that cryptocurrencies provide is often a driving factor for their use in ransomware attacks. They work in an area beyond the authority of federal authorities and corrupt safe havens that turn a blind eye.
According to Emsisoft, a manufacturer of anti-malware software, Bitcoin accounted for 98% of ransomware payments made in the first quarter of 2019.
In 2020, around $350 million in ransomware demands were paid in cryptocurrencies, the Ransomware Task Force Report disclosed.
Governments should require cryptocurrency exchanges, the crypto kiosk, and the over-the-counter trading desk to conform with existing anti-money laundering or anti-terrorist financing legislation, John Davis, vice-president of the public sector at Palo Alto Networks, said.
Image courtesy of Cointelegraph News/YouTube