News reaction: 40 countries sign pledge not to pay ransoms as part of the International Counter Ransomware Initative (CIR)

This week the 50 members of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) met in Washington, D.C and reaffirmed their commitment to 'build collective resilience to ransomware' with 40 countries signing a pledge to not to pay ransoms to cyber criminals.

Head of Global Threat Intelligence at NCC Group, Matt Hull comments on the news: “This year we have seen record numbers of ransomware victims, new ransomware variants and affiliates. We have also seen an increase in the activity of Initial Access Brokers (IAB’s), criminals that ‘break in’ to an organisation and sell access to the highest bidder, usually a ransomware group. So, the news from the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (ICRI) is most welcome. It has been clear for some time that the only way to combat the threat from ransomware is through collaboration of governments and law enforcement agencies on an international level.

At NCC Group we put real emphasis on the importance of intelligence sharing. Actionable intelligence is critical in predicting, preventing, detecting, and responding to threats. The new intelligence sharing platforms being launched by the ICRI has the potential to be an effective tool in the fight against ransomware.

Furthermore, the pledge by 40 of the ICRI’s member countries not to pay ransomware is a further commitment to limit impact of ransomware. The hope is that by cutting off the financing of the ransomware business model through extortion payments, that fewer ransomware groups will be able to maintain their ‘business’. This pledge seems to be a significant step in a hard line approach to ransomware payments, following on from the announcement by some countries to make it illegal to pay ransomware operators in the event of a breach.“