Pirates make money and have nothing to do with politics

Millions of dollars at the click of a button

Despite the technological progress in protecting electronic data for countries and institutions, hackers also benefit from this development and acquire new tools to penetrate corporate computer networks and steal data, then demand to pay a ransom before publishing or erasing this information on the Internet. Not causing societal problems.

In the months since President Joe Biden warned Russian President Vladimir Putin that he needs to crack down on ransomware gangs in his country, there hasn't been an attack as massive as the one last May that led to a gasoline shortage, but... It didn't provide much comfort to Ken Terzasca.

Problem did not disappear

Terzaska is the principal of Lewis and Clark, a small community college in Illinois, in the US, which canceled classes for several days after a ransomware attack last month disrupted critical computer systems.

"On that first day, I think we all didn't sleep for 20 hours trying to get over what happened," he said.

And even if the US isn't currently experiencing widespread front-page ransomware attacks on par with those earlier this year that targeted global meat supply or prevented millions of Americans from filling their gas tanks, the problem hasn't gone away. .

The attack on Terzaska College was, in fact, part of a barrage of lesser known episodes that upended businesses, governments, schools, and hospitals that were subjected to attacks of this kind.

Enhanced protection

Hackers say they are ready to leak and erase stolen data if they don't receive a ransom before a date they set.

 The college's ordeal reflects the challenges the Biden administration has faced in eliminating the threat, and the uneven progress on it since ransomware became a pressing national security problem last spring.

US officials have recovered some of the ransom payments, cracked down on cryptocurrency abuses, and arrested some people. Spy agencies have launched attacks against ransomware groups and the United States has pushed federal, state and local governments, as well as private industries, to beef up protections.

However, six months after Biden warned Putin, it is difficult to know whether the hackers have eased tensions due to US pressure.

Hacker attacks continue on a smaller scale, with ransomware criminals continuing to operate from Russia with seeming impunity.

Administration officials have given conflicting assessments of whether Russia's behavior has changed since last summer.

To complicate matters further, ransomware is no longer high on the US-Russian agenda, as Washington has focused on dissuading Putin from invading Ukraine.

The White House said in a statement that it is determined to "fight all ransomware" through its various tools, but that the government's response depends on the severity of the attack.

"There are some matters related to law enforcement and others that have significant impact, disruptive ransomware activity that poses an immediate threat to national security and requires other measures," the White House statement said.

Confused politicians

Ransomware attacks (in which hackers lock up victims' data and demand exorbitant amounts of money to return it) emerged as a national security emergency for the administration after the May attack on the Colonial pipeline, which supplies nearly half of the fuel consumed on the East Coast.

The attack prompted the company to halt operations, causing shortages and affecting supplies of diesel, gasoline and jet fuel across the United States for five days, although it resumed service after paying nearly $5 million in ransom to a darkside cybercrime ring.

Experts say that Darkside's work is based on stealing sensitive data by infiltrating corporate computer networks. The day after the hack, the attackers announce that they have seized all of the network's data, and are willing to leak that data over the Internet and erase it if they don't receive a ransom before a deadline they set.

In the aftermath of the attack on the Colonial pipeline company, there was concern across the country that the attack was motivated politically, and the Dark Side Company issued a statement on its website saying, “Our goal is to raise money, not create societal problems.”

Soon after, a cyber attack on meat processor JBS led to the closure of all of the company's beef plants in the United States, eliminating a fifth of the country's meat production capacity.

The company had to pay a ransom of $11 million.