Former cybersecurity chief of the UK has come out to say that companies are paying hackers in order to recover from ransomware attacks and thus inadvertently funding organized crime. He claims that new laws are needed in order for this to stop.
Ciaran Martin, the former founding chief executive of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), talked to The Guardian and complained that insurance companies that are sending funds in the name of affected companies have made it “OK to pay out to criminals.”
According to a report, criminal gangs that usually originate in Russia or former Soviet states are adding to the ransomware problem.
The extortion laws in the UK were created as a response to the threat of kidnapping and have it illegal to pay ransoms to terrorists. These laws don’t apply to ransomware demands, though.
“In the last year, experts are saying this is close to getting out of control,” said Martin. “You have to look seriously about changing the law on insurance and banning these payments, or at the very least having a major consultation with the industry.”
Indeed, according to a report from Chainalaysis, ransomware attacks grew 311% from 2019 to 2020.