Think ransomware gangs won’t thrive this year? Think again, experts say
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Big majority of the Network expects ransomware to be more dangerous in 2023 than in 2022
There were signs that ransomware gangs might — key word, “might” — have been on the run in 2022.
But experts from The Cybersecurity 202 Network are far from confident that the trend, if real, will continue in 2023. A big majority of the expert group, 67 percent, expected ransomware to take off again in this calendar year.
Another 23 percent anticipated that the threat ransomware poses will stay the same, compared to last year. And only 10 percent thought the threat would decrease.
U.S. government officials believe they’ve made a dent in these cybercrime gangs.
“I am heartened by the success we’ve seen on ransomware,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Wednesday at the Aspen Verify conference in San Francisco. “What I think we’ve shown is that we are determined to use every tool that we can to get after this problem.”
Bruce Schneier, a lecturer and fellow at Harvard University and chief of security architecture at Inrupt, backed up Monaco’s take.
“Law enforcement’s ability to track, and in some cases recover, payments is making this a less profitable crime,” he answered. “Also, we are finally engaging the international community in disrupting the infrastructure used by ransomware gangs.”
Schneier said the turmoil affecting the value of cryptocurrency has hampered ransomware gangs because that’s how they demand payment from victims. It’s an idea seconded by John Pescatore, director of emerging security trends at the SANS Institute, who added that many companies have shored up their defenses against these kinds of attacks.
The improved defenses were a factor that Shane Huntley, the director of Google’s…