New York Tries to Ban Paying Bitcoin Ransomware Attackers

Ever since then, there has been an epidemic of ransomware attacks on local and state governments, businesses and other organizations who have sensitive data. The hackers are able to use tools stolen from the NSA, like the Eternal Blue malware, to encrypt all the files on an infected machine, and then they demand a ransom, usually in Bitcoin, for the keys to decrypt the data.

This bill would create funds to update the country’s ageing cybersecurity infrastructure and make local and state sytems less vulnerable to ransomware attacks. In yet another ransomware attack, the Leominster Public Schools District in Massachusetts had to pay a ransom to unlock their data after hackers demanded over $10,000 USD.

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