The Federal Trade Commission Plans Panel Discussion on Ransomware to Recommend Solutions

Ransomware has captivated many facets of the computer security world and has emerged as being one of the most dangerous types of malware that we face over the Internet. Ransomware has grown to be the dominating malware so much that it has gained the undivided attention of many government entities, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

To address the proliferation of ransomware, the FTC is making plans to host several panel discussions to highlight the seriousness and crime syndicates that have come out of the endurance of ransomware in the past couple of years. The event, set for September 7, 2016, was announced earlier this year and has recently been listed to include several government officials and business representatives from companies like Symantec to discuss the extremely dangerous outlook of ransomware.

Expected to be part of a three-panel discussion, the FTC's panel will overview where ransomware is headed and its current state. While the FTC is heading up the panel, law enforcement agencies like the FBI will be included in the discussions to outline plans to offer tactics to defend future threats and at the same time recommend solutions for future victims.

The FTC's hope in the panel discussion, considering how ransomware has gained the attention of many government and business entities throughout the world, is to outline combative measures that would ultimately provide solutions instead of more "talk" without any action.

Cybercrooks have long been using ransomware as a successful means of extorting money from victimized computer users. Most modern-day ransomware uses aggressive file encryption and then demands payment to obtain a decryption key to restoring the encrypted and locked files on an infected computer. The added capabilities of ransomware to not only targeted consumers but to move towards the front of businesses and large corporations, the FTC is stepping in the at least address the apparent issues at hand.

It is estimated by Osterman Research, Inc. that nearly half of business in the U.S. alone have been a victim of ransomware in some form. Those infections have mostly come from malicious spam a attachment, which has remained to be one of the few constant traits of ransomware proven to be highly effective for infecting personal computers, whether they are located in homes or at large corporations.

In the past year, corporate victims of ransomware extortion schemes have increased exponentially where as many as 13% of corporate users were faced with a form of ransomware, according to security vendor Kaspersky Lab. In some of Kaspersky Lab's findings, they were also able to confirm that U.S. ransomware attacks rose by nearly 40% from 2015 to 2016.

Unfortunately, ransomware is here to stay. With the FTC initiating a panel discussion to at the minimum raise awareness of the proliferation of ransomware, many companies and security outlets with be motivated to do something potentially to curtail the spread and destruction of one of the most dangerous forms of malware in the past couple of years.

Those curious to ponder what exactly is brought up and said during the FTC's upcoming panel discussion can tune into the webcast, which will be aired from the agencies site on September 7, 2016, at 1 pm ET.