In 2021, North Carolina became the first state to prohibit public ransomware payments, even going so far as to ban negotiations with cyber criminals. It was a groundbreaking move. Florida followed suit in 2022, but its legislation took a less stringent approach, covering a narrower range of entities and omitting some of the stricter provisions found in North Carolina’s law.
North Carolina and Florida’s bans are the only ones that exist at the state level, but they have ignited a nationwide conversation about the best way to combat this pervasive cyber threat. Years later, experts still haven’t come to a unified conclusion about whether it’s the right approach. The heart of the matter lies in a moral and fiscal dilemma: Should governments refuse to fund criminal enterprises, even when the alternative could mean crippling disruptions to essential services like hospitals, schools and public safety?
Read more…
Source: Government Technology
Related:
- Gizmodo readers hit with ClickFix malware prompts after account compromise
June 22, 2026
Veteran tech website Gizmodo confirmed a compromise on Saturday after readers reported ClickFix malware prompts appearing on article pages. Users posted screenshots of fake CAPTCHA windows appearing on Gizmodo’s site. The attack aims to fool users into running malicious code via their terminals. According to Proofpoint threat researcher Tommy M, the attack was seemingly launched by an affiliate of ...
- Security experts warn of AI-boosted scam campaigns that can trick even the smartest victims
June 21, 2026
Messaging scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated as criminals use AI to imitate trusted people, familiar brands, and everyday conversations. New research from Kaspersky suggests these schemes are succeeding with alarming speed, often convincing victims to hand over money within minutes. The findings indicate that digital experience alone may no longer provide reliable protection against modern fraud attempts. Read more… Source: TechRadar ...
- Shadowbyt3$ claims Nintendo of America breach, stealing ~1GB of employee data from TinyPulse survey platform and demanding $2M ransom
June 20, 2026
Nintendo of America has confirmed suffering a third-party data breach incident, but played down its severity. An “extortion-as-a-service” hacking group called Shadowbyt3$ recently claimed to have breached Nintendo of America, a subsidiary of the Japanese gaming giant, operating in the United States, Canada, and some Latin America countries, and exfiltrated sensitive data on its employees. Read more… Source: ...
- Microsoft working on a fix for RoguePlanet, a flaw that grants full PC control
June 18, 2026
A publicly available exploit called RoguePlanet can give attackers the highest level of access on Windows systems. Microsoft has confirmed the vulnerability and says it’s working on a security update. RoguePlanet is tracked under CVE-2026-50656, where it’s described as a Microsoft Defender Elevation of Privilege (EoP) vulnerability. Read more… Source: MalwareBytes Labs Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter The latest cyber ...
- Texas government data breach allowed hackers to steal 3 million driver’s licenses and passports
June 18, 2026
A data breach at a Texas state government department allowed hackers to take the driver’s license information and passport numbers of more than 3 million people, according to the state’s attorney general. The incident is one of the largest data breaches to affect the state this year. Read more… Source: TechCrunch News Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter The latest ...
- Kodak confirms breach as ShinyHunters’ leak threat reaches deadline
June 18, 2026
The Eastman Kodak Company (Kodak) confirmed to BleepingComputer that it is investigating a security breach after the ShinyHunters extortion group claimed responsibility for the incident. Kodak is the latest organization to land on the group’s leak site. ShinyHunters claims it stole more than 2.2 million records and threatened to publish the data unless the company responded by June ...