Cybercriminals Driven By Profitability Of Ransomware Attacks - FBI Cyber Division

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 13th July, 2021) Cybercriminals engaging in ransomware attacks are motivated to do so because of the crime's profitability, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Cyber Division Herb Stapleton said on Monday.

"At the end of the day, most of these actors who are launching ransomware attacks against entities within the United States and elsewhere around the globe are interested in earning a profit, and so as they have seen that this type of activity continues to bring in revenue and be profitable, that has continued to fuel the efforts of these organizations to launch these attacks for a profit motive," Stapleton said during a Third Way event on cybercrime policy.

Stapleton added that the ability of cybercriminals to obtain the necessary tools for ransomware attacks from the dark web has lowered the barrier to entry for committing the crime in recent years, and that cryptocurrencies have made ransomware attacks easier to do anonymously.

The event was held amid a marked rise in ransomware attacks over the last several months against US-based companies, including Colonial Pipeline, the Republican National Committee, and the automation software provider Kaseya.

The cybercriminals responsible for the Kaseya ransomware attack demanded $70 million to unlock the systems, but the company returned to full service Monday morning claiming to not have paid the ransom.

Colonial Pipeline, however, paid hackers a $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin to lift the attackers' stranglehold on the company. The FBI claimed that they were able to recover 63.7 of the 75 bitcoins through a seize warrant on the address to which they were sent.