Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco speaks during the Chiefs of Police Executive Forum, at the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) headquarters in Washington, May 6, 2022. The FBI and Justice Department recently disrupted the activities of a hacking group that was sponsored by the North Korean government and that targeted U.S. hospitals with ransomware, ultimately recovering half a million dollars in ransom payments, Monaco said Tuesday, July 19. (AP File Photo)
New York, July 19 (AP): The FBI and Justice Department recently disrupted the activities of a hacking group that was sponsored by the North Korean government and that targeted US hospitals with ransomware, ultimately recovering half a million dollars in ransom payments, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Tuesday.
Monaco revealed new details of the attacks during a speech in which she encouraged organisations hit by ransomware to report the crime to law enforcement, both so that officials can investigate and so that they can help victim companies try to get ransom payments back.
In this case, Monaco said, a Kansas hospital that paid a ransom last year after being attacked by ransomware also contacted the FBI, which traced the payment and identified China-based money launderers who assisted the North Korean hackers in cashing out the illicit proceeds. The FBI ultimately recovered half a million dollars, including the entire ransom payment from the hospital.
US officials in 2021 scrambled to confront a wave of high-profile ransomware attacks in which hackers encrypt or lock up a victim's data and demand exorbitant sums to return it including against a crucial fuel pipeline on the East Coast. Though the pace of such large-scale, front-page attacks seems to have slowed, smaller targets such as hospitals continue to be affected.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from news agency feeds and has not been edited by The Morung Express.
Source: PTI/AP
