Joe Biden instructs US intelligence agencies to investigate ransomware attacks on Florida IT company – Bitcoin News
Joe Biden claims to fight ransomware on Friday after hackers hijacked software from a Miami-based IT provider named Kaseya. Hundreds of American companies were affected by the breach as the attackers encrypted the files of around 200 customers. Biden said on Friday that he had ordered an investigation into the exploited IT infrastructure in Florida.
Biden instructs US intelligence agencies to investigate the Kaseya ransomware attack
After the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack, an IT vendor named Kaseya was attacked last week and the company’s software management tool called VSA was exploited. The attack on Friday hit a large number of Kaseya customers and investigators suspected Russian gangs were involved. Huntress, a security company, said the company believes Russians were involved and blames a gang called Revil. The Revil ransomware gang is also suspected of attacking meat packaging company JBS last month.
American President Joe Biden remarked in a public appearance that he had instructed US intelligence agencies to investigate the matter and that the US would do something if Russia got behind it. Last month, Biden met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and told the leader that there would be consequences if ransomware attacks continued and turned out to be from Russia. However, Biden said “we’re not sure” who was behind the attack on the Florida IT company, adding:
The first thought was that it wasn’t the Russian government, but we’re not sure yet.
Kaseya CEO Fred Voccola told the press that the company had found the vulnerability and would “release this patch as soon as possible to get our customers back up and running.” John Hammond, senior security researcher at Huntress, said that this single piece of shared software enabled hundreds of companies to be exploited. “This is a colossal and devastating attack on the supply chain,” said Hammond on Friday.
Ransomware has pushed the Biden administration to investigate the crypto ecosystem
Biden’s statements follow comments from Victoria Nuland, Secretary of State for Political Affairs at the US State Department, about the hacking of the Colonial Pipeline. Referring to a discussion she had with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, Nuland noted that the US State Department was “taking a hard look at Bitcoin” following the Colonial Pipeline ransomware hack.
The infrastructure of the US energy company Colonial Pipeline collapsed in May after a gang of ransomware exploited the system. Colonial Pipeline then paid the hackers 75 Bitcoin (BTC) to bring their infrastructure back online. However, in early June, US law enforcement officials announced that they had recovered much of the funds (63.70 BTC) that were supposed to go to members of the ransomware gang.
Before the Kaseya hack, Biden’s government had already published a “memorandum on establishing the fight against corruption as a central national security interest of the United States” in the first week of June. Biden’s policy to federal agencies puts cryptocurrencies in the spotlight, and the administration says the policy is designed to strengthen national security.
A member of the Kaseya hack response team said the breach sent a large number of ransom demands to all infected companies on Friday. Reuters reports that the customers affected by the Kaseya ransomware attack were being asked for “a few thousand dollars to $ 5 million or more”.
What do you think of Joe Biden instructing US intelligence agencies to investigate the Kaseya ransomware hack? Let us know what you think on this matter in the comments below.
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