Increasingly severe ransomware attacks have prompted the Senate Intelligence Committee to introduce new legislation that would consider ransomware attacks as acts of terrorism, CyberScoop reports.
Aside from labeling ransomware operations as "hostile foreign cyber actors" and sanctioning countries protecting ransomware actors that will be dubbed "state sponsors of ransomware," the bill, sponsored by Intelligence Committee Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., would also request a report from the Treasury Secretary detailing information from individuals, groups, and organizations subject to Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctions due to ransomware involvement.
Authorities of several agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the FBI, in pursuing foreign ransomware attacks should also be reported by the Comptroller General under the legislation. While the legislation indicates the U.S.'s increasing seriousness in dealing with ransomware attacks, its inclusion of 18 ransomware gangs, such as Black Basta, in its hostile foreign cyber actors list was noted by experts to be at risk of not considering the ever-changing nature of ransomware groups amid mounting law enforcement action.
