New Ransomware Bill Shows Promise But is Undermined by a Limited Scope

A new bill has been proposed to address Ransomware. Congressman Patrick McHenry recently introduced the Ransomware and Financial Stability Act of 2021.

Good Direction, but Falls Short

I believe it is the right direction for undermining ransomware attacks, by disallowing payments, but it just does not go far enough.

This proposal only targets and benefits traditional financial institutions. Whereas, ransomware puts at risk every business, person, and government service that directly or indirectly relies upon digital services and solutions! That includes all this nation’s critical infrastructure like fuel distribution, the electrical grid, emergency response systems, healthcare, financial sector (including cryptocurrency), food/water distribution, and many more.

Therefore, everyone is at risk!

This bill does begin to explore the fact that establishing regulations to forbid payments by victims to attackers, creates an undesired environment for cybercriminals to operate. Why would they attack victims with ransomware, if they know they won’t get paid? This leverages the very greed of the attackers against them…