$12 Billion Government Contractor Booz Allen Facilitates Ransomware Payments

upstart writes:

$12 Billion Government Contractor Booz Allen Facilitates Ransomware Payments:

Back in his FBI days, Jerry Bessette witnessed firsthand the carnage caused by hackers. In 2014, he led the investigation into what was then one of the most significant digital security breaches of all time, an attack on Sony Pictures. Eventually blamed on North Korea, the hack led to the release of troves of Sony's confidential information - including damaging internal emails, some written by Sony Co-Chair Amy Pascal, who left the company.

In recent years, the 24-year FBI veteran once again has a front seat to the ransomware scourge that's damaging not just for high-profile executives like Pascal, but for the average consumer too. Recent incidents hitting health institutions, gas giant Colonial Pipeline and beef supplier JBS have all shown how disruptive such attacks, in which hackers steal data, lock up victims' files, and demand a ransom in return for unlocking it, can be. Both Colonial and JBS ended up paying millions to the hackers. "They've really taken it to the next level," Bessette tells Forbes. "They're highly-sophisticated criminal organizations, not much different from the drug organizations and the terrorist organizations that we've seen over the course of the past 10, 20 years."

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