Ransomware will now get priority treatment at the Justice Department

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The Justice Department has created a task force to centrally track and coordinate all federal cases involving ransomware or related types of cybercrime, such as botnets, money laundering, and bulletproof hosting.

To ensure we can make necessary connections across national and global cases and investigations... we must enhance and centralize our internal tracking of investigations and prosecutions of ransomware groups and the infrastructure and networks that allow the threats to persist," Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told US attorneys throughout the country on Thursday. She issued the directive in a memo that was first reported by Reuters. Investigators in field offices around the country would be expected to share information as well.

The new directive applies not just to cases or investigations involving ransomware but a host of related scourges, including:

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