The Joint Ransomware Task Force held Wednesday its second meeting and assessed measures and efforts carried out by working groups to address the impact and prevalence of ransomware incidents.
Some of these efforts are standardizing federal engagement with ransomware victims to provide services and evaluate gaps, gathering data to improve the cybersecurity community’s understanding of ransomware and trends related to threat actors and victims and broadening multidirectional intelligence sharing between JRTF members and nongovernmental partners, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said Thursday.
CISA and the FBI co-chaired the meeting, which also cited working groups’ efforts to examine lessons learned from ransomware incidents to help enhance the federal government’s cyber response and initiatives to improve intelligence integration and better coordinate interagency campaigns to bolster national defense against ransomware activities.
Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA and co-chair of JRTF, said the task force has made key strides in establishing a foundation to advance shared initiatives against ransomware threats.
“We will continue to accelerate progress and work closely with partners across the cybersecurity community to drive measurable progress in reducing the prevalence of damaging ransomware events affecting American organizations,” Goldstein added.
Bryan Vorndran, assistant director of FBI’s cyber division and co-chair of JRTF, said the bureau, along with its federal partners, is determined to use its capabilities to counter ransomware threats.
“The JRTF demonstrates how the FBI sees cyber as the ultimate team sport and remains committed to public and private partnerships integral to dismantling ransomware networks and holding criminal actors accountable.”
The task force held its first meeting in September.
