US steps up fight against ransomware with task force after oil pipeline incident

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The United States will coordinate investigations into ransomware centrally with a task force in an effort to become more resilient to the malware. The White House is calling on businesses to be alert and take precautions.

The recently formed team in Washington is tasked with mapping all ransomware attacks in the US and uncovering possible connections between attacks. This should provide a complete picture of the national and economic threat of ransomware. This is stated in an internal directive that Reuters has seen and which was sent to prosecutors’ departments on Thursday. The US also applies the method of monitoring all attacks and making connections for terrorist attacks, but not before with ransomware, Reuters writes.

Last week, the US Deputy National Security Advisor for Cyber ​​and Emerging Technology addressed corporate America with an urgent advice to guard against the threat of ransomware. The advice is to make regular backups and keep them offline, update and patch systems as soon as possible, test an incident response plan, perform independent pen tests and segment networks.

The US is stepping up its fight against ransomware after a US oil pipeline had to be shut down because the company behind it was hit by ransomware. Only after a few days could the pipeline be put back into use. In the meantime, crowds at petrol pumps caused fuel shortages.

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