In 2020, 2,400 government, health care and school networks were shut down by ransomware attacks, a 311% increase over the year before. These numbers don’t include numerous attacks on private companies.

This segment of What’s Ahead explains why, in order to deter future assaults carried out with the implicit and explicit connivance of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, the U.S. government must be willing to undertake preemptive cyberattacks against these rogue nations to let them know that their activities are not cost-free. 

Such preemptive moves would also put our adversaries in the frame of mind to adopt—and actually adhere to—agreements to cease their proliferating assaults.

This is the best way to back up efforts to establish meaningful international rules of the road for protecting the integrity of the Internet.