Ransomware has undeniably taken the world by storm over the past few years by causing whole industries to suffer due to its malicious usage. Many U.S citizens on the East Coast even experienced gas shortages last month due to a ransomware attack on the Colonial Pipeline.
Cybersecurity experts have warned about for years: cyber attacks engineered overseas can evolve to a point where they interfere with basic services we all depend on. But it's taken two major attacks within a two week span for the general public to acknowledge ransomware as a major threat.
Up until recently cyber attacks have mostly meant some minor customer data loss, possible identity theft, or maybe even fraud losses — all bad but not in the same league of concern that the Colonial Pipeline Company and JBS meat processor attacks foreshadow for the near future.
Those are a preview of potential coming attractions, a next-level threat that definitely worries security professionals. Most malware attacks are targeted towards IT because that’s where the data that can be monetized resides and most cyber criminals are in it for the money. Plus, IT is more universally exposed to the internet.
Ransomware is certainly the concern of law enforcement and the intelligence community. Attacks on infrastructure by criminals who aren’t deterred by possible consequences changes the game.
This concern was reflected in announcements on Friday by the Department of Justice that ransomware extortions will immediately move up the priority stack to equal terrorism.
FBI Director Christopher Wray followed up by likening the surge in ransomware hacks to 9/11. These are startling statements that wouldn’t have been issued without the Colonial Pipeline attack.