Yesterday, October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued its “Advisory on Potential Sanctions Risks for Facilitating Ransomware Payments.” The advisory begins with the observation that “ransomware attacks have become more focused, sophisticated, costly, and numerous,” citing certain FBI statistics, before making clear what was already well […]
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SEC’s OCIE Issues Ransomware Risk Alert
On July 10, the SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations (OCIE) issued a Risk Alert noting the increasing sophistication of ransomware attacks on SEC registrants and service providers to SEC registrants. The Risk Alert is notable for its encouragement of financial services market participants more broadly and not just SEC registrants to monitor CISA […]
Outbreak of “WannaCry” and “Wanna Decryptor” Ransomware Affects Companies Across the Globe
On Friday, May 12, companies in countries across the globe witnessed an unprecedented malware outbreak as ransomware labeled “WannaCry” and “Wanna Decryptor” infected a large range of critical systems. The malware exploits a vulnerability in older versions of Microsoft’s Windows, locks the systems it infects, and threatens to delete files unless a bitcoin ransom is […]
Ransom Payments At A Historic Low According to Report
On February 4, 2025, Coveware, Inc. released its quarterly ransomware report for the fourth quarter of 2024, and identified that the percentage of victims paying ransoms fell to a historic low of 25%. While the average amount of a payment in Q4 2024 rose 16% quarter-over-quarter to $553,959, the median amount dropped a significant 45% […]
Last Minute Biden Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence Executive Orders Survive Initial Trump Revocations
In the final week of the Biden Administration’s term in office, former President Biden issued two high profile executive orders that could have significant ramifications for the cybersecurity and technology industries. The first, issued on January 14, 2025, is an “Executive Order on Advancing United States Leadership in Artificial Intelligence Infrastructure” (the “AI Infrastructure Order”). […]