The U.S. government lacks a complete picture of ransomware attacks that routinely cripple government and private sector networks, according to an investigation by Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee staff.
The report, released Tuesday, also found that the government lacks information on how much ransom was paid — typically in the form of cryptocurrencies — by victims of such ransomware attacks.
“Cryptocurrencies, which allow criminals to quickly extort huge sums of money, can be anonymized, and do not have consistently enforced compliance with regulations, especially for foreign-based attackers, have further enabled cybercriminals to commit disruptive ransomware attacks that threaten our national and economic security,” Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the committee, said in a statement accompanying the report.
