Stakeholders raise potential consequences of ransom payment ban on critical infrastructure entities

Imposing a ban on ransom payments could cause unintended consequences such as increased targeting of critical infrastructure entities, according to industry stakeholders who participated in a Thursday event evaluating pros and cons of instituting a federal policy to prohibit sending funds to threat actors.

“Setting aside the mechanics of how we would do this under law ... the most significant impact will be how it changes threat actor behavior, and potentially in ways we’re not expecting,” Sezaneh Seymour of Coalition...