Recent high-profile “ransomware” attacks on the world’s largest meat-packing company and the biggest U.S. fuel pipeline have underscored the broader disruptive effects of such extortionist infiltrations. Among recent known targets are a Massachusetts ferry operator, the Irish health system and the Washington, D.C., police department. But the major disruptions that followed hacks on Colonial Pipeline in the U.S. in May and Brazilian meat processor JBS SA not long thereafter have drawn close attention from the White House and other world leaders — along with heightened scrutiny of the foreign safe havens such as Russia where these cybercriminal mafias operate.
