US President plans to hold 30-nation meet to tackle ransomware attacks, cyber crime: WH

United States’ top national security advisers plan to convene a virtual meeting with leading global executives and officials from at least 30 countries to tackle the growing threat of ransomware and other cybercrime posed by extortionist hackers, the White House said in an official statement on October 1.

"President Biden will bring together 30 countries at a 'Counter-Ransomware Initiative' to accelerate our cooperation in combatting cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues," agencies, citing a White House statement, reported on October 1.  The White House also informed that the Biden-administration "will be marshalling a whole-of-nation effort to confront cyber threats." 

Ransomware can pose a hefty danger to global cybersecurity as it "scrambles the target organisation’s data with encryption. The criminals leave instructions on infected computers for negotiating ransom payments. Once paid, they provide decryption keys for unlocking those files," Associated Press explains.  It further elaborates that before triggering encryption, hackers "quietly copy sensitive files and threaten to post them publicly unless they get their ransom payments." 

'US under ever-increasing threat from malicious cyber hackers': President Biden

In his opening statement at the White House, marking October as 2021 Cybersecurity Awareness Month, US President Joe Biden said that America was now under a "constant and ever-increasing threat from malicious cyber hackers and criminals," as he reminded about the series of ransomware attacks on the US fuel pipelines, food suppliers, hospitals, schools, police departments and businesses that posed major cybersecurity risk. Cybersecurity Awareness Month has elevated the central role that cybersecurity plays in our national security and economy, he stressed. 

Biden said that in order to combat the cybercrime risks and protect the national internet-connected devices, technology, and networks from security threats, he would like to urge all Americans to act responsibly and protect their sensitive data by embracing this year’s theme:  “Do Your Part.  Be Cyber Smart,” he said. President Biden then stressed that his administration was going to boost cooperation with the international community to “elevate the profile of cybersecurity as a matter of global security interest.” This will include the illegal use of cryptocurrency.

It is to be noted that the two major US companies, Colonial Pipeline and the JBS meat manufacturer that was hit by a ransomware attack allegedly by the Russian hackers paid the ransoms in cryptocurrency Bitcoin ($ 11 million and $5 million respectively) which was later retrieved by the FBI and law enforcement agencies. The Biden administration had then launched a dedicated website www.StopRansomeware.gov to curb ransomware attacks on private and government public servers. The US President also held a meeting with the country’s top tech executives, including Apple's Tim Cook, to encourage them to make billions of dollars worth of investments to embolden cybersecurity. 

Global cybersecurity umbrella under US' Counter-Ransomware Initiative

A meeting of the world’s top officials, a group that the US labelled as Counter-Ransomware Initiative, will be presided by the United States National Security Council to bolster defences against a range of cybersecurity issues, including "improving law enforcement collaboration”. This would also imply direct talks with Russia as well as the NATO alliance and Group of Seven (G7) nations, according to agencies' reports. It was, however, not immediately revealed which countries of the world would participate in the United States’ global meeting for cybersecurity under the Counter-Ransomware Initiative.

The US also launched a 100‑day initiative to improve cybersecurity across the electric sector, prompting more than 150 utilities that serve 90 million to deploy the cybersecurity technology, which, Biden said his administration was now preparing to execute to the gas pipelines sector.

The US President had, earlier this year, also signed the executive order to modernise and improve the security of the technological assets, including software security, information sharing, and federal networks. Last year, ransomware gangs hit more than 100 federal, state, and municipal agencies, upwards of 500 health care centres, 1,680 educational institutions, and thousands of businesses, according to the cybersecurity firm Emsisoft. 

"This Executive Order makes a significant contribution toward modernising cybersecurity defences by protecting federal networks, improving information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues, and strengthening the United States’ ability to respond to incidents when they occur," President Biden had said at a presser.