The Ransomware Threat to Law Enforcement

Cyberattacks on law enforcement risk exposing a trove of sensitive data that malign parties could sell to criminal organizations or hostile governments, which could then victimize and/or physically harm individual officers or entire organizations. In April 2021, the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia (MPD) was the victim of an extortion plot that threatened to expose sensitive data. The Babuk Group, a Russian-speaking ransomware crime syndicate, threatened to share the sensitive data with District of Columbia-area criminal gangs unless the department paid a ransom....