Cybersecurity Policy Report, Homeland Security Chair Ponders Whether Ransomware Payments Should Be Outlawed, (Apr 15, 2025)
Organizations Mentioned:Vanderbilt University
A potential deterrent to ransomware attacks on U.S. organizations might be to outlaw ransomware payments and establish a federal fund to help victims restore their systems, according to Rep. Mark Green (R., Tenn.), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“We’d only probably have to do it a couple of times” before ransomware attackers discover that they’re not going to get paid, Rep. Green said Friday at a national security conference hosted by Vanderbilt University.
“I don’t know if that’s the right course of action, but these are the kinds of things we’ve got to think about if we’re going to take on an enemy that is resourceful and never sleeping,” he said.
Economic incentives drive ransomware attacks, and they also contribute to a separate cybersecurity issue by encouraging software vendors and other technology providers to rush products with cyber defects to market, Rep. Green said.
“I get the concept of ‘first to market.’ But first to market results in rushed applications with vulnerabilities,” he said.
“We’ve got to figure out how to reverse that economic model and ensure that when software, applications, other things hit the market, they’re safe, and they’re not going to create a vulnerability,” he said.
Ransomware and product security are among the hard problems he and the Homeland Security Committee hope to solve, Rep. Green added, and he welcomed the input of institutions like Vanderbilt. “This is where I need thought leaders to help us.”
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