Senator Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York wants to pass a federal law to protect state and local institutions from cyberattacks.
The Rockville Centre School District on Long Island recently paid nearly $100,000 in ransom after hackers used a virus to lock administrators out of their computers.
Schumer says ransomware attacks are happening more and more often.
“Very bad people, usually from Eastern Europe, come in, hack computers of school districts, police stations, hospitals, lock them up and say ‘Unless you pay me a large sum of money, we’re going to keep your computer systems down.’”
The new federal law would create special response teams from the Department of Homeland Security to investigate cyberattacks.
It also urges the FBI and DHS to work with state and local entities to prevent future hacking. The bill is currently in the Senate.
