According to some projections, American companies can expect more than 65,000 ransomware attacks in 2021.

Some think it could top 100,000 attacks.

McDonald’s, Colonial Pipeline and even the City of Tulsa have been subjected to these attacks.

The attack on Colonial Pipeline only had to overcome one password for hackers to subjugate the entire company. The company paid $15 million in ransom even though the FBI advised them not to pay. (The Justice Department later recovered about $2.3 million for the company.)

The attack on the City of Tulsa caused great delays and inconvenience to city services. The entire scope of the damage may not be entirely known even now.

Ransomware is malware from cryptovirology in which a hacker threatens to reveal the victim’s person data or to block access to that data unless a ransom is paid.

Why do companies pay?

Frankly, some don’t want their financial officers to have to go to court because they would be forced to reveal sensitive company information. Hackers understand that.

And sometimes companies pay and the stolen data is not returned.

Some people think there are two kinds of companies – those who have been hacked and those who don’t know they’ve been hacked.

One way to fight back is through voice identification technology but that is expensive.

Much of this criminal activity is headquartered overseas in places like Africa, Russia and China. The U.S. Government should exert pressure on these countries to end these activities. But with a weak president like Joe Biden, don’t look for that to take place on a significance scale.

The FBI, the CIA and U.S. Justice Department should prioritize finding these criminals and shutting them down. This is a serious threat to our economy and swift action is called for.