Treasury Department

October 1, 2020

Ransomware Victims That Pay Up Could Incur Steep Fines from Uncle Sam

This post was originally published on this siteCompanies victimized by ransomware and firms that facilitate negotiations with ransomware extortionists could face steep fines from the U.S. federal government if the crooks who profit from the attack are already under economic sanctions, the Treasury Department warned today. Image: Shutterstock In its advisory (PDF), the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said “companies that facilitate ransomware payments to cyber actors on behalf of victims, including financial institutions, cyber insurance firms, and companies involved in digital forensics and incident response, not only encourage future ransomware payment demands but also may risk violating […]
June 7, 2021

Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB

This post was originally published on this siteKrebsOnSecurity recently had occasion to contact the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the process of doing so, I encountered a small snag: The FSB’s website said in order to communicate with them securely, I needed to download and install an encryption and virtual private networking (VPN) appliance that is flagged by at least 20 antivirus products as malware. The FSB headquarters at Lubyanka Square, Moscow. Image: Wikipedia. The reason I contacted the FSB — one of the successor agencies to the […]