How Can Congress Take on the Ransomware Problem?
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 16 August 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
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Summary
The United States government has been wrestling with what to do about a particular type of cyber threat—ransomware—that holds a victim's data and computer systems hostage until they pay, usually in the form of cryptocurrency, to an anonymous recipient. Recent ransomware attacks have threatened everything from hospitals to the media industry, with payment being the main way that most companies are choosing to get back online. But what does giving into such demands mean for broader U.S. efforts to prevent and deter ransomware attacks? Scott R. Anderson sat down on Lawfare Live with Lawfare editor-in-chief Benjamin Wittes and Lawfare fellow in cybersecurity law Alvaro Marañon, who together recently authored a piece for Lawfare entitled, “Ransomware Payments and the Law.” They argue that stemming the flow of payments is essential to deterring ransomware attacks and argue that the United States should adopt a policy banning such payments in all but the most serious cases. They discussed the threat that ransomware poses to the U.S. economy, how payments should be dealt with, and what Congress and the Biden administration seem to be doing about it.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:08.0 | become a material supporter of LawFair at patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | You are not allowed to give money to a designated foreign terrorist organization. |
| 0:39.0 | But if I'll guide a kidnap to your nephew and threatens to kill him and you pay that ransom, |
| 0:45.0 | that is not going to be prosecuted. |
| 0:48.0 | And so there is this question of, do we think of these payments as more like human ransoms? |
| 0:55.0 | Or do we think of them as more like foreign corrupt practices act violations, |
| 0:59.0 | which are to say payments to overseas actors that we make in order to facilitate and maintain a good business plan? |
| 1:09.0 | I'm Scott R. Anderson, and this is the LawFair podcast for August 16, 2021. |
| 1:15.0 | The United States government has been wrestling with what to do about a particular type of cyber threat. |
| 1:21.0 | Ransomware that holds a victim's data and computer systems hostage until they pay, |
| 1:25.0 | usually in the form of cryptocurrency to anonymous recipient. |
| 1:29.0 | Recent ransomware attacks have threatened everything from hospitals to the meat industry, |
| 1:33.0 | with payment being the main way that most companies are choosing to get back online. |
| 1:37.0 | But what does giving in to such demands mean for broader US efforts to prevent and deter ransomware attacks? |
| 1:43.0 | For this past week's LawFair Live, I sat down with LawFair Editor-in-Chief Benjamin Wittis, |
| 1:49.0 | and the LawFair Fellow in Cybersecurity Law, Alvaro Marignon, who recently authored a piece for LawFair entitled Ransomware Payments and the Law. |
| 1:57.0 | They argue that stemming the flow of payments is essential to deterring ransomware attacks, |
... |
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