The Biden administration has dropped support for a ban on making ransomware payments, a measure which many believe would undercut the profitability of the tactic. Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology, has explained that they were persuaded that it would backfire: many companies would take their chances by paying, and consequently try to conceal the incident – or important details about it – to avoid being penalized for doing so. “We heard loud and clear from many that the state of resilience is inadequate, and as such, if we banned ransom payments we would essentially drive even more of that activity underground and lose insight into it that will enable us to disrupt it,” Neuberger said.
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