LAW-enforcement agencies in 13 more states have recently joined the global campaign against ransomware, Kaspersky Lab ZAO said.
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Colombia, France, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are collaborating around the “No More Ransomware” project, Kaspersky Lab announced in an October 20 statement.
The police force from these states would cooperate to make more decryption tools available for ransomware victims to decrypt devices and unlock data.
“The fight against ransomware succeeds best when law-enforcement agencies and the private sector join forces,” Jornt van der Wiel, security researcher, was quoted in the statement as saying.
According to van der Wiel, researchers conduct broader malware (malicious software) analysis and services that are valuable in locating links between different data.
“This enables the police to locate and seize the servers used to manage the attack,” he said. “In some cases, the researchers’ insight can also help track down and arrest the criminals. The seized servers can contain decryption keys, and, when shared with private-sector companies, this can be turned into decryption tools that help victims unlock their data without paying ransom.”
Over 2,500 ransomware victims had recovered their data using the main decryption tools on the platform during the first two months, depriving cyber-criminals of an estimated over a million dollars in ransom, the Russian cyber-security firm said.
The Europol gestured support to further broaden the project within the European Union (EU).
“Despite increasing challenges, the initiative has demonstrated that a coordinated approach by EU law enforcement that includes all relevant partners can result in significant successes in fighting this type of crime, focusing on the important areas of prevention and awareness,” said Steven Wilson, head of the European Cybercrime Centre.
“More law-enforcement agencies and private organizations are expected to join the program in the coming months,” Kaspersky Lab said. The Dutch National Police, Europol, Intel Security and Kaspersky Lab launched the No More Ransomware project on July 25 this year.