I like that the threat from Ransomware is being taken seriously. With some countries debating laws that would make paying ransoms illegal, it's tempting to think that this rather scary threat might soon be diminished.

A senior official at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) has said that ransomware attacks in America are to be investigated with a similar urgency as incidences of terrorism.

The official told news agency Reuters that cyber-assaults using this particular type of malware are to be prioritized more highly now following a passel of ransomware attacks against entities in the US and elsewhere.

Ransomware victims in recent weeks have included the Colonial Pipeline, meat supplier JBS, the Steamship Authority of Massachusetts, and Fujifilm.

https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/n ... 2Z5zzI7dyU

This means nothing.
With terrorists burning and looting from coast to coast for years....they focus on terrorists that do not exist and make friends with the worst terrorists across the planet.
What a joke.

Are you another american saying your country is going to hell in handbasket, BBgun? ^^
Amping up the brokenness. Calling the other half of the population terrorists?
Rejecting your own democracy?
A Patriot, eh?

Back to topic.
My first reaction was that comparing ransomware to terrorism was a bit of a hysterical reaction. But on second thoughts maybe not.

What worries me most is that if some nerdy crims can do this with increasing ease, surely some "bad actor states" could cripple our whole system in a flash.
One more front where we, The West, have left ourselves wide open.

ffs, We pay our security services trillions and they are only just now waking up to this existential threat.

Ransomware blocking several hospitals have been a concern lately in France. There's always some assholes to prey on the weak, at the worst moment.
I would treat that as terrorism, as some human casualties are at stake.

i'm not even sure terrorism includes human victims nowadays. The definition of it is evolving, not too sure how to put definitive words on it

ridiculous move really
as soon as terrorism became the symbolic pinnacle of evil, people started using it opportunistically in cases where it did not apply

terrorism has a specific definition: attacking a populace at random to gain a political end.

ransomware is a crime of theft.
if a govt calls it something else then they are able to inveigh other legal and leo resources against it.
indicating they cannot stop it when it is still classified as theft

Ghostwriter wrote: ↑Tue Jun 08, 2021 6:06 am ....

i'm not even sure terrorism includes human victims nowadays. ....

yes, it always has: attacking non-government citizens of country when you are trying to change the policies of their government.

Aristotle wrote critically of terror employed by tyrants against their subjects.[19]
The earliest use of the word terrorism identified by the Oxford English Dictionary is a 1795 reference to tyrannical state behaviour, the "reign of terrorism" in France.[20] (Wiki)

Some definitions include some acts of war as "state terrorism".
There is also "state sponsored terrorism".

It depends on your definition, and where you draw the line.
and, to some extent, that is determined by which side of the conflict you are on in a particular "asymmetric warfare" situation.