The ransomware epidemic

How digital extortion threatens American infrastructure

Gas tanks.
(Image credit: JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

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Our nation's infrastructure is facing an unprecedented onslaught of cyberattacks, said Rishi Iyengar and Clare Duffy at CNN. Last week, the country's biggest meat processor became a target of hackers demanding ransom — even as a major oil pipeline was just recovering from a ransomware attack that shut off oil to much of the Southeast. The latest victims even include the ferry to Martha's Vineyard, the Obamas' vacation spot. Hackers used to focus mainly on stealing data. But increasingly brazen perpetrators, often based in Russia, have "found a significant moneymaker in targeting physical infrastructure" and demanding payment to unlock critical systems. FBI director Christopher Wray compared the urgency of the threat to the scramble against international terrorism after 9/11. By tracing the route of the Bitcoin payment, the FBI was able to recover most of the $4.4 million paid to reopen the Colonial Pipeline. But the attacks on the oil and food industries have demonstrated "the potential to spark mayhem in people's lives."

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