  Over the past three years, especially following WannaCry malware, ransomware
has become one of the biggest concerns for private businesses, state, and local
government agencies. According to Homeland Security statistics, 1.5 million
ransomware attacks have occurred per year since 2016. Cybercriminals often use
creative methods to inject their malware into the target machines and use
sophisticated cryptographic techniques to hold hostage victims' files and
programs unless a certain amount of equivalent Bitcoin is paid. The return to
the cybercriminals is so high (estimated \$1 billion in 2019) without any cost
because of the advanced anonymity provided by cryptocurrencies, especially
Bitcoin \cite{Paquet-Clouston2019}. Given this context, this study first
discusses the current state of ransomware, detection, and prevention systems.
Second, we propose a global ransomware center to better manage our concerted
efforts against cybercriminals. The policy implications of the proposed study
are discussed in the conclusion section.
