Ransomware attacks gain global attention
A coalition of leaders from around 30 nations kicked off a White House-led summit on countering ransomware attacks Wednesday by calling for increased international cooperation to fight these incidents.
The summit comes as several nations have been left reeling after cyberattacks.
US leader weighs in: “We know very well, all of us who have gathered here today, that we cannot do this alone, no one country, no one group can solve this problem,” Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to President Biden, said during a plenary session to kick off the two-day U.S.-led ransomware summit.
“We view international engagement as foundational to our collective ability to deal with the ransomware ecosystem, to hold criminals and the states that harbor them accountable, and to reduce the threat to our citizens in each of our partner countries,” Sullivan said.
Top cybersecurity officials from countries around the world participated in the opening plenary session, which preceded two days of closed-panel discussions around ransomware focused on resilience, disruption, virtual currency and diplomacy.
Healthcare concerns: Several of the nations participating detailed recent disruptive ransomware attacks, including an ongoing attack in Israel against one of the nation’s largest hospitals, in emphasizing the urgent need for enhanced collaboration to face down ransomware threats.
Read more about the discussion here.
One country not invited by the Biden administration to the ransomware summit was Russia, which has been accused in recent months of harboring cybercriminal groups involved in major ransomware attacks such as those on Colonial Pipeline and JBS USA.
