It Is Time to Ban Ransom Payments: Change My Mind

Allan Liska

Recently, there has been a lot of discussion around enacting laws to ban payments to ransomware actors. The general consensus is that these laws will have negative repercussions, but they are also the least bad option available to us.

This lightning talk will review the arguments for and against banning ransom payments, it will look historical analogies for banning ransom payments and look at the effectiveness of current laws in North Carolina and Florida banning payments to ransomware groups.

In the end, I will argue that it is time to enact laws banning payments to ransomware groups, but only if those laws are accompanied by rigorous reporting requirements.