United States will Discuss Global Cybersecurity without Key Player: Russia

Amid an epidemic of ransomware attacks, this week the United States will discuss cybersecurity strategies with 30 countries, but without a key player: Russia, the Associated Press reported.

The country, which inadvertently or not, is home to many of the criminal unions behind cyberattacks blocking ransom access to computer systems, was not invited to a two-day meeting today to develop new strategies to combat the threat.

It is expected that most of the meeting will be held behind closed doors. Participants will attend virtual sessions led by India, Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany and will focus on topics such as developing resilience to repel ransomware attacks. Other participants in the meeting will include Israel, the UAE, Bulgaria, Estonia, France, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, New Zealand, Singapore and Kenya.

A senior US administration official said discussions would focus in part on efforts to break up and prosecute ransomware attack networks, such as the one that hit a major US pipeline management company in the United States in May. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which led to a fuel shortage on the east coast of the United States, was attributed to a Russian-based group of cybercriminals.

The exclusion from the meeting of a country so closely linked to the global phenomenon of ransomware attacks generally reflects bad relations between Moscow and Washington.

However, the spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States had used a "special channel" to discuss cybersecurity with Russia.

According to the US government, ransom payments due to ransomware attacks worldwide reached more than $ 400 million in 2020 and nearly $ 81 million in the first three months of 2021.

/BTA

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