{"id":42227,"date":"2021-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trendmicro.com\/en_us\/research\/21\/f\/are-tax-breaks-encouraging-ransom-payments.html"},"modified":"2021-06-24T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-24T00:00:00","slug":"are-tax-breaks-encouraging-ransom-payments-vp-threat-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.threatshub.org\/blog\/are-tax-breaks-encouraging-ransom-payments-vp-threat-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Tax Breaks Encouraging Ransom Payments? VP, Threat Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The pressure is mounting on the White House to produce some kind of coherent action plan to tackle the ransomware epidemic sweeping the US and the world. But while we wait for the details on that, news emerged over the weekend that the government may unwittingly be providing another incentive to victim corporations to pay-up when confronted by a breach.<\/p>\n

According to the Associated Press article<\/a>, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) may allow these companies to deduct any payments from their annual tax bill. It\u2019s exactly the opposite to what needs to happen.<\/p>\n

A growing menace<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

We all know the incredible pressure organizations are under today from a highly motivated, well resourced, and growing number of threat actors. Trend Micro detected a 34% increase in new ransomware families in 2020<\/a> versus the previous year, and that\u2019s not counting the large number of affiliate groups that have sprung up over the past few months.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re using increasingly sophisticated tools and techniques to get what they want: multi-stage APT-style attacks using legitimate tools<\/a> to move laterally and exfiltrate data, and quadruple extortion tactics.<\/a> There will always be a chink in the corporate cybersecurity armor for these actors to penetrate. The challenge for many up until now has been to find the right detection and response tooling<\/a> to spot and react to breaches before the bad guys have had a chance to do any damage.<\/p>\n

Time for action<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

Attacks on Colonial Pipeline<\/a> and JBS brought home to senior policymakers the reality that many critical supply chains may be at risk. To its credit, the Biden administration has already begun to ramp up a response to the growing menace of ransomware. So far it has:<\/p>\n