The FBI does not advise victims to pay the ransom

Sep 15, 2016 20:20 GMT  ·  By

The FBI has published an official statement on its stance on ransomware infections, urging any victims, company or individual, to report such incidents to federal law enforcement.

The FBI has been under a lot of criticism after one of its agents disclosed to members of the press that, in many situations, they advise companies to pay the ransom.

The FBI agent's advice was not only taken out of context by many media agencies but also considered an official policy when it was clearly not.

Following the dissemination of these news stories and some high-profile ransomware infections, the FBI was called to answer for its "official stance" on ransomware infections in front of the US Senate, with FBI Director James Comey answering an official inquiry back in April.

FBI wants complaints for every ransomware infection that takes place in the US

The Bureau dispelled any confusion regarding its position on ransomware today when it published a public statement announcement (PSA) regarding what companies or US citizens should do.

The PSA, posted on the website of the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), makes it clear that the FBI wants victims to contact the IC3 and make a formal complaint.

The FBI wants victims to tell it the date of the infection, the ransomware variant that infected their systems, company data (business size, industry vertical), how the infection occurred (email, browser, USB), the amount of the ransom fee, the Bitcoin wallet to which the payment was requested, if the victim paid the ransom, and overall losses associated with the infection.

The FBI even wants victims to add a short personal statement in which they describe in their own words the impact this infection had on them and their business.

The agency is encouraging users to make the complaints even if they paid or recovered the data from backups. They say they need even this information to form a bigger picture of the ransomware infections across the US.

FBI makes its position clear, once and for all

The Bureau also finally made its position clear on paying the ransom, something that had caused many problems since last year.

  The FBI does not support paying a ransom to the adversary. Paying a ransom does not guarantee the victim will regain access to their data; in fact, some individuals or organizations are never provided with decryption keys after paying a ransom. Paying a ransom emboldens the adversary to target other victims for profit, and could provide incentive for other criminals to engage in similar illicit activities for financial gain. While the FBI does not support paying a ransom, it recognizes executives, when faced with inoperability issues, will evaluate all options to protect their shareholders, employees, and customers.  

The PSA also contained a series of recommendations and defenses to prevent ransomware infections in the future, which you can read by pressing the button below.
FBI Ransomware Defenses