FTC chair will open agency’s ransomware session

FTC Chairwoman Edith Ramirez will provide the opening keynote at a public meeting the agency is staging on the scourge of ransomware.

In a statement Monday, the FTC released details of the agenda for the Sept. 7 event, which was scheduled back in March.

Following Ramirez’s remarks, there will be three panel discussions examining the state of ransomware, how consumers and businesses can protect themselves and what to do if their computer becomes infected with ransomware.

The first panel will provide the latest statistics about the scope of the ransomware problem and include presentations from Cisco Talos, PhishLabs, and Flashpoint. 

The second panel will examine the best defenses against ransomware, and will include FTC Chief Technologist Lorrie Cranor along with representatives of Cylance, Red Canary, Symantec and Children’s National Medical Center. 

The third panel will consider how victims should respond to a ransomware hacker’s demands and include representatives from the FBI, Sylint, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Charles River Associates.

In addition, the FTC’s Office of Technology Research and Investigation and New York University’s computer science department will present new research based on a study of dozens of ransomware variants.

The event is free and open to the public. 

The full schedule and other details on the forum can be found on the event’s webpage.