The US raised the level of investigation into the crime of extortion hackers to the level of ‘terrorists’

The US Department of Justice has raised the level of investigation into ransomware attacks to the same level of priority as investigating “terrorism” cases.
Associated Reuters Citing a senior US official on June 3, the US Justice Department had raised the level of investigation into ransomware attacks to the same level of priority as investigating “terrorism” cases.

The move comes after the attack on the US oil and gas shipping company Colonial Pipeline and the growing damage caused by cybercriminals. The US raised the level of investigation into the crime of extortion hackers to the level of ‘terrorists’. Photo: REUTERS In an internal guideline document sent to law offices across the United States on June 3, the US Department of Justice directed that investigations into ransomware should be coordinated with the central government, specifically: A new task force was established in Washington. “This will be a specialized process to ensure we can track all cases of extortion hackers regardless of where they happen in the US, so we can capture the connection between subjects and proceed to break the whole link,” said Deputy Attorney General John Carlin. Previously, in May, the largest US oil pipeline system, the Colonial Pipeline, was crippled by hackers. Colonial Pipeline has decided to pay hackers who have compromised their systems nearly $5 million to regain access. According to the Reuters , the DOJ’s guidance document specifically mentions the Colonial attack as an example of “the growing threat posed by cybercriminals and digital ransomware to the nation.” . “To ensure we can uncover connections between incidents and investigations across the country and globally, and to paint a big picture of national security and economic threats, The economy we face, we must strengthen and focus our internal monitoring,” the guidance document states. Reuters Citing US officials, the decision to include ransomware attacks in a special process by the Department of Justice shows that the issue is being prioritized. “We’ve used this model in the past for counterterrorism, but never with ransomware,” said Carlin, adding that the process typically applies to cases involving direct national security. In practice, this means that investigators at US attorneys’ offices dealing with ransomware cases will have to share both up-to-date case details and technical information with officials in Washington. The guidelines also require offices to review and report other investigations related to the large-scale cybercrime ecology. According to the guidelines, the list of investigations currently required to be reported to the central government includes: anti-virus services, illegal online forums or marketplaces, cryptocurrency exchanges, cybercriminal server services, botnets, and online money laundering services. “We would like to emphasize that prosecutors and criminal investigators need to report and conduct monitoring of cryptocurrency exchanges, illegal online forums or marketplaces for trading hacking tools. , as well as tracking botnets that serve a variety of purposes,” said Carlin. According to Mark Califano, a former US attorney and cybercrime expert, raising the level of investigation could allow the US Justice Department to “deploy resources more effectively” and “identify common exploits” variables” used by cybercriminals.