Agencies: Ransomware threat increased globally in 2021

Sophisticated, high-impact ransomware incidents against critical infrastructure organizations increased globally in 2021, according to a new advisory by cybersecurity authorities in the United States, Australia and United Kingdom. The FBI, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and National Security Agency observed incidents against 14 of the 16 U.S. critical infrastructure sectors, notes the advisory, which includes recommended actions to help organizations protect against the latest ransomware trends. 

John Riggi, national advisor for cybersecurity and risk at the AHA, said, “This report is especially useful as it combines the collective knowledge and intelligence on ransomware trends of not only multiple U.S. agencies, but also of our trusted allies in the U.K. and Australia. This is one of the best U.S. government public advisories I have seen on ransomware. It includes a very comprehensive list of risk mitigation tactics, such as multi-factor authentication, highly secure off-line backups, up-to-date patching and more. The report also provides links to helpful ransomware resources and identifies trends such as ransomware gangs aggressively targeting cloud services and mission-critical third-party service providers.”

For more on this or other cyber and risk issues, contact Riggi at jriggi@aha.org.