The United Kingdom want to use a lately formed cyber command to “ James Henry Leigh Hunt ” and hack ransomware gangs , a high - floor politics official lately revealed .
Jeremy Fleming , the manager of Britain ’s signals intelligence authority , GCHQ , divulged the design at this year’sUS Cipher Brief threat conferenceon Monday . Fleming said that Britain had seen a significant uptick in ransomware attacks and that the government was looking to expend nauseating trading operations to deter future attacks .
Operations of this sort would belike involve the government using its own feat to target and disable server engage by deplorable gang , theFinancial Times reports . The UK ’s National Cyber Force — a new incorporate program line , make last year — would be the vector for such bodily process .
Sir Jeremy Fleming, director of GCHQ, Britain’s intelligence and cybersecurity agency.Photo: ROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP (Getty Images)
“ The reason it [ ransomware ] is proliferate is because it works . . . criminals are making very good money from it and are often feeling that [ it ’s ] mostly uncontested , ” he said . “ I ’m pretty open from an international police force perspective and certainly from our domesticated law perspective you’re able to go after [ criminal actors ] , ” he added .
news program of the UK ’s architectural plan to “ hack the drudge ” come only about a week afterReuters first reportedthat the U.S. had conducted an operation of its own along these line . harmonize to the electric receptacle , the FBI and various partners latterly worked together to hack the servers of REvil — a prominent ransomware ring that has been connect to some of the vainglorious attack on U.S. companies . REvilmysteriously disappearedin July , not long after conductinga gargantuan attackon software company Kaseya . At the time , it was n’t clear what had happen to the criminal — and some speculated that the gang had intentionally close down its own operations . However , Reuters reportsthat , in reality , the gang had its web substructure hacked by law enforcement and some of its server were co - opted .
The news that the U.S. and the UK are operate in such activities seems to signal a new phase of constabulary enforcement tactics in battle cybercrime — one in which politics more actively and openly pursue cybercriminals rather than just scavenge up their mess .
Oleg Skulkin , DFIR Lab deputy headspring with cybersecurity firm Group - IB , told Gizmodo in an electronic mail that the operation against REvil is n’t the first time that the U.S. has worked to disrupt a cybercrime mathematical group .
“ There have been reports about such surgical process in the beginning , ” Skulkin said . “ Last twelvemonth , the U.S. Cyber Commandcarried out an operationin analogue with private sphere players to take down the infamous TrickBot botnet ahead of the Election Day to prevent it from being used to launch attacks on IT systems supporting the election process . ”
However , Allan Liska , Senior Security Architect with Recorded Future , told Gizmodo that the late FBI operation against REvil would appear to be an escalation of what the U.S. is willing to do to go after ransomware operators .
“ While this is not the first time that natural law enforcement has seized ransomware actor ’s infrastructure it does look to be the first time they have used CNA ( computing machine electronic internet attack ) method acting ( at least that has been publically reported ) , ” Liska said . “ This is the next logical advance and a sign that law enforcement is taking the ransomware scourge seriously . ”
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