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A growing swarm of ransomware attacks has created a cottage industry of tech whizzes willing to do what companies and law enforcement won’t: negotiate with the cybercriminals taking systems and data hostage.

Besides outright banning ransom payments, one of the most widely circulated policy ideas to curtail ransomware would be to treat cryptocurrencies as a bonafide component of the financial system: require cryptocurrency exchanges or the cryptocurrencies themselves to abide by regulations that reduce anonymity and prevent money laundering.

If you have been reading about or watching news shows discussing ransomware, more than likely, you have seen Kurtis Minder. He has been nearly omnipresent across multiple platforms because his team at Groupsense has been putting in the work to help the victims of ransomware attacks negotiate with attackers in order to get their data back.

For cybercriminals looking to launder illicit gains, bitcoin has long been the payment method of choice. But another cryptocurrency is coming to the fore, promising to help make dirty money disappear without a trace.

Ransomware attacks have become one of the biggest threats in cybersecurity today. Cybercriminals have blocked access to a major US oil pipeline, shut down hospitals in Ireland and halted operations in the world's largest meat processing company.

The most pervasive wisdom about preventing damage from ransomware is to backup systems. FujiFilm and Colonial Pipeline in fact, restored from back-ups. So in an era of increased concern about ransomware, is solving the ransomware scourge as simple as investing in some backups?

In the past year, several Illinois organizations have been compromised by ransomware groups, which often demand payment in cryptocurrency under threat of compromising services or leaking sensitive data.

Kurtis Minder, CEO of threat intelligence firm GroupSense, received a lot of press as a top negotiator in ransomware cases. But he’d rather you not hire him or his peers to negotiate. Instead, he says, he’d much rather you stop the ransomware attack before you’d ever need to call him in.

Kurtis Minder speaks to Razia Iqbal of BBC News on what happens when a ransomware attack occurs and if they can be prevented. In his discussion he explains the basic steps he takes when starting a ransomware negotiation and his experiences throughout the process. 

Kurtis Minder told CNN when discussing ransomware negotiation: "Part of this whole process is also about being a counselor and helping them (the victim) remain objective during this unfortunate event."