Easterly says research community can play vital role against ransomware attackers

The “democratization” of hacking tools has made U.S. infrastructure “much more vulnerable” to ransomware attacks, says CISA Director Jen Easterly, who wants to “ignite” engagement by the “white-hat” research community as a key piece of the response.

“Cybersecurity is now a kitchen-table issue and a lot of that is because of ransomware,” Easterly said Wednesday at Wired’s “Re-Wired Conference” in a session titled “Tinker, Hacker, Sailor, Spy: The Scourge of Ransomware.”

But this “scourge” is “starting to have a...