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Outrage is the word that best describes business owners’ reaction to a Federal alert on October 1st, 2020 with this joyful news:
“The US Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC)… Issued an advisory alert on October 1, 2020, that serves as a warning to entities who have been or will be the victim of a ransomware attack.” The five-page advisory states that “any company that pays a ransom to a criminal threat actor or any entities that facilitate the payment, including financial institutions, cyber insurance firms, and companies involved in digital forensics and incident response, may be in violation of OFAC regulations and subject to fines.”
OFAC’s explanatory advisory made it clear that acceding to ransomware demands in any situation has negative economic consequences over and beyond the ransom itself. Since the government has no intention of wrassling (*To wrassle – a verb; Wrassling – the national sport of Slamdovia) with cybercriminals nor putting them behind bars, virtual or otherwise, it appears the government thinking is, “Let’s fine the good folks trying to retrieve their seized businesses, and hope they deny criminals a ransom. That’ll stop ’em!”
Obviously, no one in business, in their right mind, wants to engage tech-savvy criminals who pose a threat to U.S. national security interests. But when they come knocking on your network door and threaten your valued relationships’ proprietary information, your business operations, and your livelihood – it’s no wonder you are quick to protect those information assets and s-l-o-w to research whether or not the hackers are on a sanction list! You can be sure that Rat-Team of criminals will keep showing up to the cyber-dance whether YOU pay their ransom or not.
The government’s reasoning for why you should not pay a sanctioned criminal?: You are emboldening the cybercriminal to commit further crimes.
Guess what? Since this is what they do for a living, your response to cyber criminals’ ransom demands will only result in one of two outcomes:
1) If you pay the ransom, some of your data is restored.
2) If you do not pay the ransom, none of your data is restored.
There is no third outcome – the one the government suggests would result if cybercriminals go ‘unpaid’ – that they stop stealing data and stop shutting down companies’ operations. Regardless of which way you play it, bad actors’ enthusiasm and work tempo is not diffused one iota! Why? Because their payload, hack for hack, is so large they won’t even flinch if you don’t pay the ransom…they’ll just sit on or sell your data, then execute the next heist!
Note that OFAC Sanction list accommodations for extenuating circumstances provides some wiggle room for hard-pressed businesses, since the Federal alert states “may be in violation of OFAC regulations and subject to fines” – with “may” reflecting two caveats:
1) Risk of violating OFAC regulations specific to dealing with threat actors that have been sanctioned; and
2) OFAC’s understanding of the “complex dilemma” faced by victims.
On a case by case basis OFAC may, due to mitigating circumstances, license payments to be made … with applications considered “on a presumption of a denial”.
The threat by our own government that they, too, may (as in “might”) and again may (as in “permitted by law”) demand a penalty or fine, is one too many sets of sticky fingers in their business as Owners see it. Add to this the fact that the government admits to hiring its own White Hat Hackers – the good guys hired to chase the Black Hat Hackers’ tricks and tactics, and it begins to get blurry when we talk of fines to whom, by whom, for what?!
Take away? Start a dialog if you haven’t already with Data-Guard 365 who, together with your IT team, will document every jot and tittle that your constituents, your insurance vendor, and the government insists on seeing as proof you’re penetration hardened against cybercrime!
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Pamla Davitt, VP Business Development, Data-Guard 365
Data-Guard 365 is a MSSP firm headquartered in Indianapolis, Indiana, with offices in Chicago, Atlanta, and other strategic locations across the globe. The company is a one-of-a-kind business partner whose people, processes, and technology provide invincible cyber security for a price point that pays for itself. www.Data-Guard365.com / (317) 967-6767 / info@data-guard365.com
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