Russia missing from US-organized international ransomware event
US officials blame absence on host of reasons
This week, the US is organizing an international summit where participants will discuss countering the online ransomware threat. Russia is notably absent from the list of attendees.
The meeting, organized by the National Security Council, will bring over 30 partners together to discuss how to counter the ransomware threat. Participants range from Australia, Canada, the EU, the United Kingdom to Estonia, Nigeria, and Bulgaria.
The virtual summit will address four topics: How to disrupt ransomware actors and infrastructure, how to improve network resilience to attacks, how to change the financial systems that support ransomware, and how to increase international cooperation to fight this growing crime model.
Four key partners will lead the event: India will lead and organize discussions around resilience; Australia will lead the session on disruption; the UK will discuss the issue of virtual currency; and Germany will focus on diplomacy.
That focus on international diplomacy is notable, given Russia's absence from the event. President Biden discussed ransomware at a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in June, warning him that he would not tolerate cyber attacks on US infrastructure from Russia.
A senior administration official said that Russia was not participating for a range of reasons.
RELATED RESOURCE
The best defence against ransomware
How ransomware is evolving and how to defend against it
"We’ve seen some steps by the Russian government and are looking to see follow-up actions. And broader international cooperation is an important line of effort because these are transnational criminal organizations and they leverage global infrastructure money laundering networks to carry out their attacks," they said. The US also communicates directly with Russia on ransomware issues via a US-Kremlin Experts Group, they added.
Ransomware payouts have nearly doubled in the last year. The US has suffered several high-profile attacks, including a successful assault on Colonial Pipeline that prompted authorities to order better security on US pipelines.
-
What’s the role of IT operations management in improving infrastructure visibility?ITOM can map out hardware and software dependencies, bringing order to chaotic IT infrastructure
-
Why Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo breakthrough paved the way for the generative AI revolutionNews AlphaGo's victory over Go champion Lee Sedol in 2016 gave a "definitive preview of the AI era" and laid the groundwork for today's powerful tools.
-
The rise of teen hackers ‘makes for a good headline’, but cyber crime activities peak later in lifeNews With family responsibilities and mortgages to pay, it's not teenagers dishing out malware or carrying out cyber extortion
-
Ransomware gangs are using employee monitoring software as a springboard for cyber attacksNews Two attempted attacks aimed to exploit Net Monitor for Employees Professional and SimpleHelp
-
Ransomware gangs are sharing virtual machines to wage cyber attacks on the cheap – but it could be their undoingNews Thousands of attacker servers all had the same autogenerated Windows hostnames, according to Sophos
-
Google issues warning over ShinyHunters-branded vishing campaignsNews Related groups are stealing data through voice phishing and fake credential harvesting websites
-
The FBI has seized the RAMP hacking forum, but will the takedown stick? History tells us otherwiseNews Billing itself as the “only place ransomware allowed", RAMP catered mainly for Russian-speaking cyber criminals
-
Everything we know so far about the Nike data breachNews Hackers behind the WorldLeaks ransomware group claim to have accessed sensitive corporate data
-
There’s a dangerous new ransomware variant on the block – and cyber experts warn it’s flying under the radarNews The new DeadLock ransomware family is taking off in the wild, researchers warn
-
Hacker offering US engineering firm data online after alleged breachNews Data relating to Tampa Electric Company, Duke Energy Florida, and American Electric Power was allegedly stolen
