- The US government and cybersecurity tools are effectively fighting certain cyberattacks, per the WSJ.
- One hacker group reportedly let go of 45 call-center operators.
Hackers and others perpetuating ransomware threats seem to be the latest tech industry workers navigating a shaky job market.
As US Department of Justice investigators and companies beef up their oversight of cybersecurity threats, the impact of ransomware attacks — hackers demand ransom payments from targets — has been blunted, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The increased vigilance has led to declines in both the number of such online ransomware attacks that certain cybersecurity professionals fielded last year and the size of ransom payments that hackers were trying to get for them, cybersecurity groups told the WSJ.
One hacker group called Conti even laid off 45 call-center operators last year who were working as part of an apparent scheme to spread ransomware attacks after the call centers failed to make money, the publication reported, citing an executive at Red Sense, an intelligence company.
Ransomware hacks can have high stakes, especially when hackers blackmail targets over private information in order to extract payments.
The DOJ has signaled in recent years that it is ramping up its policing of cybercrime. In 2021, the agency created new groups internally, including the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team and the Ransomware and Digital Extortion Task Force.
Such efforts have helped the DOJ investigate and extradite alleged hackers to the US, the agency said. For instance, federal prosecutors said last year that they brought in a man who had been detained in Poland to appear before a federal court. The agency said he had used the Sodinokibi/REvil ransomware against companies including software firm Kaseya.
The agency has also stepped up its oversight amid high-profile attacks on domestic infrastructure, including the Colonial Pipeline hack that affected a 5,000 mile gas pipeline serving the East Coast of the US in 2021.
In the DOJ's cybersecurity report in July, the department said it had been looking into more than "100 variants of ransomware" and groups it "suspected of causing over $1 billion in losses to victims."
Countries are generally also stepping up their oversight of ransomware attacks and trying to improve privacy regulations, according to the research and consulting firm Gartner.
Close to a third of nation-states are expected to devise laws governing ransomware by 2025, the firm said in a June report on its anticipated cybersecurity trends in the next year. In 2021, that figure was smaller than 1%, according to the report.
Read the full story in The Wall Street Journal.