telling the wall street journal, the fbi is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware, many that trace back to hackers in russia. one study shows the u.s. was hit by 1,000 ransomware attacks alone. costing businesses and organizations $500 million and $220 billion in 2020. and sent the cryptocurrency payments with some of the techniques just described to you, show a 300% increase in payments over the prior year. reporter: ransomware attacks have impacted everything from the gas pipeline operated by colonial that led to gas shortages all along the east coast to meat production plants being shut down and even individual health care networks whose computer systems have been shut down sporadically across the country and the world. before long, we are worried that some people will get hurt, especially when you consider all of these incidents that are
administration. jessica schneider explains. reporter: the biden administration sounding the alarm about the growing threat of cyberattacks. fbi director christopher wray comparing the effort needed to combat this, to have the fbi approach the response to terrorism after 9/11. there are a lot of parallels. there s a lot of importance and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention, wray said. he told the wall street journal the fbi is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware, many that trace back to hackers in russia. one study shows the u.s. was hit by more than 15,000 ransomware attacks last year alone, costing businesses and organizations between at least half a billion and $2.3 billion in 2020. ransomware locks up computer files and hackers demand payment to release the files. a study of cryptocurrency payments and some of the techniques that were just described to you show a 300% increase in ransom payments over
ransomware locks up computer files, and hackers demand payment to release the files. cryptocurrency payments. these are some techniques that were just described to you. show a increase in ransom payments over the prior year. reporter: ransomware attacks have impacted everything from the gas pipeline operated by colonial that led to gas shortages all along the east coast. to meat-production plants being shut down. and even individual healthcare networks, whose computer systems have been shut down sporadically across the country and the world. before long, we are worried some people will get hurt. especially, when we consider all these incidents that are affecting healthcare. ireland s healthcare system went down. reporter: the department of justice signaling, this week, it plans to coordinate its cyberinvestigations, the same way it treats terrorism cases. by sharing information and interagency coordination.
wray comparing the effort needed to combat this rapid succession of ransomware attacks to how the fbi reports the response to terrorism after 9/11. there are a lot of parallels, a lot of importance, and a lot of focus by us on disruption and prevention wray said. director wray told the wall street journal the fbi is investigating about 100 different types of ransomware, many that trace back to hackers in russia. one study shows the u.s. was hit by more than 15,000 ransomware attacks last year alone costing businesses and organizations between at least half a billion and $2.3 billion in 2020. ransomware locks up computer files and hackers demand payment to release it back to the victim. the study of cryptocurrency payments, some of the techniques just described to you, show a 300% increase in ransom payments over the prior year. reporter: ransomware attacks have impacted everything from the gas pipeline operated by
The Reserve Bank of India has given a huge relief to crypto investors and traders by clarifying that banks and other entities cannot use its 2018 order on virtual currencies to caution their customers.