Well, this is not exactly what I suggested yesterday on Twitter as a strategy (I suggested that every ransomware group that hits the medical sector should be declared a terrorist organization and put on the Treasury’s sanctioned list), but it could help. Ian Talley and Dustin Volz report:
The Biden administration is preparing an array of actions, including sanctions, to make it harder for hackers to use digital currency to profit from ransomware attacks, according to people familiar with the matter.
The government hopes to choke off access to a form of payment that has supported a booming criminal industry and a rising national security threat.
Read more on WSJ. They can still consider my suggestion, I hope, that they declare threat actors who hit medical sector “terrorists” and put them on the sanctioned list. As I said yesterday, it’s time to take off the gloves.