The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) co-chaired the first meeting of the Joint Ransomware Task Force (JRTF), an interagency body established by Congress to unify and strengthen efforts against the ongoing threat of ransomware. The JRTF will unify existing efforts and identify new initiatives to effectively leverage the unique authorities and capabilities across government and the private sector, including actions to protect against ransomware intrusions more effectively and to disrupt ransomware actors. At the meeting, participating agencies discussed how to leverage the JRTF to improve coordination and make measurable progress in addressing the ransomware threat. Some of the activities that will be coordinated by the JRTF include:
- Prioritization of operations to disrupt specific ransomware actors.
- Facilitating coordination and collaboration between federal entities and relevant private sector and SLTT entities to improve federal actions against ransomware threats, including efforts to increase adoption of defensive measures to reduce the prevalence of successful ransomware intrusions.
- Identifying a list of highest threat ransomware entities updated on an ongoing basis.
- Collecting, sharing, and analyzing ransomware trends.
