Organizations can act to protect themselves, but collaboration is the best defense
During a ransomware hack, attackers infiltrate a target's computer system and encrypt its data.
Ransomware is a collective problem-and solving it will require collaborative action from companies, the U.S. government and international partners.
In 2020 the Federal Bureau of Investigation received more than 2,400 reports of ransomware attacks, which cost victims at least $29 million, not counting lost time and other resources.
Even these limited statistics demonstrate the increasing boldness of ransomware gangs: the number of attacks in 2020 increased by 20 percent compared with the previous year, and the amount of money paid out more than tripled.
The company paid at least $4.4 million to restore its systems, although the government eventually recovered about half that amount from the attackers, a Russia-based ransomware gang called REvil.
If all organizations that fall victim to ransomware report their attacks, they will contribute to a trove of valuable data, which can be used to strike back against attackers.
Certain ransomware gangs may use the exact same type of encryption in all their attacks.
"White hat" hackers can and do study these trends, which allows them to retrieve and publish the decryption keys for specific types of ransomware.
Last October the FBI worked with foreign partners to force the REvil ransomware gang offline; in November international law-enforcement agencies arrested alleged affiliates of the group.
Such collective action among organizations, government and law enforcement will be necessary to curb the boldest ransomware attacks.