More ransomware crackdowns imminent

Ransomware operations will be continuously subjected to escalating sanctions and hacking operations as the U.S. and its allies strengthen their efforts to crack down on ransomware activity, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future. Collaboration between the U.S. Justice Department and its international partners has been crucial in imposing export controls and various sanctions against ransomware actors, said U.S. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco at the Munich Cyber Security Conference. "Every single notable cyber disruption, whether its ransomware networks that weve taken down, whether its the disruption of the GRU botnet, as we did with the operation CyclopsBlink last year, all of these things the Hydra darknet marketplace that we took down with the help of our German colleagues thank you very much everything we are doing in this space has an international aspect," said Monaco. Such a pronouncement comes after the recent disruption of the Hive ransomware gang by the FBI and the Justice Department, as well as the joint U.S. and U.K. sanctions imposed on Trickbot cybercrime group members.