As more and more companies are becoming soft targets for ransomware spreading gangs, United States is all set to knock the doors of big technology companies like Amazon, Google, and Microsoft to offer protecting collaboratively.
Named as Joint Cyber Defense Collaboration, the initiative will allow the Department of Homeland Security to officially seek help from tech companies against sophisticated cyber attacks such as ransomware and espionage related malware attacks.
Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at DHS, has confirmed the news and said that the initiative will help improve defense planning and information sharing between governments and the private sector.
Jen who previously worked as a head of counter-terrorism at the Obama led White House was sworn in as a director of CISA in July 2021.
As ransomware attacks are disrupting the daily lives of the United States, Ms. Easterly felt that the new collaboration with tech companies will help in offering peacetime to the populace of America against state sponsored attacks.
Meanwhile, the recent setup Reward’s for Justice Program by Homeland Security is reportedly yielding best results. The website StopRansomware.gov that acts as a central hub for all questions related to ransomware will also now assist those who offer information on tracking the hackers spreading ransomware.
The website that was established a few weeks ago is gaining great momentum as it is said to be receiving a lot of tip-offs against the cyber criminals spreading ransomware. And out of those, over 33% of information gathered has yielded results in nabbing the criminals.
But the bad news is that none of the info provided were related to any state sponsored attacks.
However, if the tip-off works and yields best results, then the candidate offering the information will receive a tax less reward of up to $10 million.
Isn’t that encouraging..?
