Hackers hit thousands of victims last year taking advantage of the pandemic. And last week hackers hit police departments in Maine and Washington D.C. In the D.C. hack, hackers leaked sensitive documents and then demanded ransom.
In February, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas called the increasing number of cyberattacks an “epidemic;” he spoke at an event introducing and recommending the Ransomware Task Force recommendations on Friday.
SolarWinds was the Tipping Point
Lawmakers and U.S. intelligence services claim that the recent SolarWinds attacks show how urgent the need to create enhanced information sharing. SolarWinds was a massive hacking campaign that hit nine federal networks. It was finally detected by cybersecurity firm FireEye which notified SolarWinds and the U.S.
“What’s key for the private sector here is not only do we have a national strategy that’s well resourced and that allows for privatization, we have the ability to share information among each other and with law enforcement and with governments,” assistant general counsel for Microsoft’s digital crimes unit and Task Force co-chair Kemba Walden explains.“I think transparency goes a long way, especially if you’re part of the security community, to disrupt and to take action to operationalize that information.”
