The fight against online crime is proving to be an uphill battle, to say the least. With malware, ransomware, and Trojans becoming more common threats than ever before, the time is now to improve communication between different entities. Unfortunately, the lack of communication and collaboration is making things a lot harder than they should be.
Communication And Collaboration Are Key
It is very difficult to respond to cyberattacks if the victims do not properly communicate with law enforcement and other entities who may be able to help them out. For some unknown reason, a lot of companies and individuals affected by malware and ransomware never report these incidents to the police. That situation will need to change sooner rather than later.
More importantly, this lack of communication is not helping security experts either. Companies and individual researchers try to keep track of all online threats and develop free countermeasures. However, if no one is keeping track – mainly due to the lack of information – it becomes virtually impossible to address cyber attacks in a quick and proper manner. More collaboration on this front is direly needed, to say the least.
It is rather interesting to learn most ransomware incidents in the US are reported to the FBI. However, The Boston Police Department, for example, hardly ever receives a complaint related to malware or ransomware. This seems rather strange, considering police departments have adequate IT staffers who can certainly help with these types of investigations. Then again, finding the person responsible for a cyber attack has proven to be very difficult, even for law enforcement agencies.
One thing that causes a bit of a problem for filing ransomware attack reports to a police department is how it becomes public record. FBI investigations, on the other hand, are usually subject to limit or no public knowledge while the investigation is pending. Although suffering from a ransomware attack is nothing to be ashamed of by any means, a lot of people still see it that way. Additionally, some victims feel they shouldn’t burden the FBI with these petty attacks, even if they lose money in the process.
It is evident there are certain stigmas preventing proper communication between victims and those who investigate these matters. However, the fear of “shame” can’t be the only reason why there are so little collaboration between different entities. A lot of businesses – and consumers – are not prepared to deal with cyberattacks these days. That is a big problem which is incredibly difficult to address. Panicking is a normal response, yet it is what criminals aim to instill in their victims in the first place.
Thwarting cyber attacks will only become more difficult until proper lines of communication are established. Some sort of automated system would be the better solution, although it is incredibly complicated to set up. Attacks will continue to exploit security weaknesses and panic-based decision making at every possible turn. At the same time, the ransom demands will continue to increase, as criminals grow confident their victims will continue to pay the money regardless. Now is the time to pay more attention to these types of attacks, that much is evident.
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