FBI Director, Christopher Wray has said the national security threat posed by ransomware attacks on the United States is similar to the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director said the agency was studying about 100 different types of ransomware, several tracing back to hackers in Russia, and matched the current spate of cyberattacks with the challenge posed by the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“There are a lot of parallels, there’s a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention,” Wray said in an interview Thursday.
“There’s a shared responsibility, not just across government agencies but across the private sector and even the average American.”
Wray’s comments come as the U.S government and the private sector cope with the ramifications of two recent ransomware attacks on the world’s largest meat supplier JBS Foods and the Colonial Pipeline.
The FBI boss said although the recent high-profile attacks have put a spotlight on the issue, the country still needs to “come to terms” with the scope of the problem.
“Now realizing it can affect them when they’re buying gas at the pump or buying a hamburger — I think there’s a growing awareness now of just how much we’re all in this fight together,” Wray said, adding, “The scale of this problem is one that I think the country has to come to terms with.”
Gatekeepers News reports that ransomware is a type of malicious computer code that locks up a victim network’s files that hackers use to demand payment for their release, typically with digital currency such as bitcoin.
