Preventing and disrupting cybercrime has become a priority for the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) instead of focusing on courtroom victories, according to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco.
In a keynote address at the RSA Conference 2023 in San Francisco, Monaco said the DoJ has put victims at the center of its cybercrime response, including the recovery of ransom payments made by Colonial Pipeline and access to infrastructure used by the Russian military. Monaco stated that there needs to be a bias towards action to disrupt and prevent future attacks.
Nation-state actors have joined forces with local criminal groups, leading Monaco and the DoJ to conduct a comprehensive review of maximizing legal tools available.
The Justice Department wants to work closely with the private sector and share as much information as possible about threats, with court proceedings taken when companies fail to take enough remedial action.
The Justice Department’s approach to the Hive ransomware takedown would have been considered “heresy” under previous efforts to combat cybercrime.
Still, the legal authority was used to conduct a “21st-century cyber stakeout” to gain access to Hive’s network and steal its crypto keys, resulting in more than $130 million in ransomware payments not being made.
Monaco said that working together is vital, and “doing more and more of that is what we’re all about.”
