[BreachExchange] US Military’s Hacking Unit to take on ransomware gangs

[Terrell Byrd]

https://www.hackread.com/us-militarys-hacking-on-ransomware-gangs/

The Unit’s boss Gen. Paul Nakasone said that the US military computer
operatives are ready to target ransomware gangs and state actors, whoever
poses a threat to critical US infrastructure.

The US military’s hacking division called Cyber Command is taking
aggressive steps to fight cybercrime gangs targeting American organizations
with ransomware. According to the unit’s spokesperson, this decision
resulted from the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in May.

The spokesperson didn’t mention what kind of actions the unit would take.
Still, they did confirm that the target would be criminal gangs who tried
to hijack US agencies and businesses’ computer systems, reports CNN.

Cyber Criminals and State Actors are the Targets
The head of Cyber Command and the National Security Agency director, Gen.
Paul Nakasone, revealed that the US military computer operatives are ready
to target criminal gangs and state actors, whoever poses a threat to
critical US infrastructure.

Nakasone stated earlier that the US government has increased its fight
against ransomware operators and is looking to cut off their funding
sources as starters. In his recent interview with the New York Times,
Nakasone reiterated the department’s pledge and claimed that cutting
funding sources is an essential aspect of the fight against ransomware
operators.

“Before, during, and since, with a number of elements of our government, we
have taken actions and we have imposed costs. That’s an important piece
that we should always be mindful of,” Nakasone said.

Russia Refuses to Act
The White House has tried to pressurize the Russian government into acting
against cyber criminals operating from within Russian soil, but Moscow
seems to have turned a blind eye towards all the hackers who aren’t
targeting Russia.

Allegedly, most of the criminal groups the government aims to target are
based in Russia and East Europe. US President Joe Biden will have a video
call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday to discuss
cybersecurity.

Colonial Pipeline, JBS Attacks Served as a Catalyst
Although ransomware attacks against US institutions and businesses have
happened before, the government and relevant authorities actually took
notice of the gravity of the situation after ransomware attacks on Colonial
Pipeline and JBS USA.

It is worth noting that Colonial Pipeline supplied 45% of the East Coast’s
fuel, while JBS USA is the country’s largest meat supplier. Both the
attacks occurred in 2021.

These attacks compelled the US government to stop considering ransomware
attacks as the domain of law enforcement only since criminal gangs targeted
and impacted the country’s critical infrastructure. So, a hands-on approach
was required to deal with the issue.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.riskbasedsecurity.com/pipermail/breachexchange/attachments/20211210/5a3b3e67/attachment.html>