Lawyer Monthly Q&A: Should Companies Pay Data Hacking Ransoms?

In the 21st century, a new form of kidnapping has arisen: data ransoming. Hackers can gain access to digital assets and information through a company’s server or emails, and can threaten to disclose it or destroy it unless they are paid an exorbitant ransom. Lawyer Monthly featured Karl Kronenberger in a Q&A article discussing this issue.

“For companies, the first solution is to have state-of-the-art technology defenses, which involves getting experts to look at your network, analyzing it for risks of intrusion and educating employees,” Mr. Kronenberger said.

In the article, Mr. Kronenberger outlined possible solutions to this issue, both on a regulatory and a corporate level. On a large scale, governments can discourage businesses from paying ransoms for data through financial sanctions and restrictions. Until such policies are implemented, companies can prevent data ransoming through strategies such as having secure backups, training employees on malware, developing policies concerning macro scripts in attachments and limiting software installation privileges.

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