White House kicks off international ransomware meeting amid global barrage

The U.S. is pushing the message that the world should address ransomware collectively.

A parade of nations recounted grim experiences with ransomware at the start of a two-day White House-led summit on Wednesday, where the gathered officials will collaborate on how to counter the rise of digital extortion.

Israel was, at the moment, dealing with an ongoing ransomware attack at a major hospital, Hillel Yaffe Medical Center. Ireland and the Czech Republic have experienced similar attacks on their medical centers. South Korea has seen a 70% year-over-year increase in ransomware incidents, and the United Arab Emirates has seen a 200% rise.

Each anecdote, each statistic fed into the White House message for the day that ransomware is a global issue that will require collective action. Scheduled sessions will cover resilience, illicit finance, disrupting criminals and diplomacy, each led by officials from a different country.

“No one country, no one group can solve this problem,” said U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. “Transnational criminals are most often the perpetrators of ransomware crimes, and they often leverage global infrastructure and money laundering networks across multiple countries, multiple jurisdictions to carry out their attacks.”

Nations will have to work together “to hold criminals and the states that harbor them accountable, and to reduce the threat to our citizens in each of our countries,” Sullivan said.

The White House has notably blamed Russia as one of the states that harbors ransomware criminals, excluding the country from this week’s summit of more than 30 nations.

Sullivan alluded to upcoming United Nations cybercrime treaty negotiations, an area where the U.S. and Russia also are at loggerheads.

The gathered nations are primarily like-minded in their recognition of the ransomware threat, he said.

“Our governments may have different approaches with respect to the tools we believe are best to counter ransomware — everything from how to secure our networks, to leverage diplomatic tools, and even the most effective ways to counter illicit finance,” Sullivan said.

Several nations touted those different approaches to ransomware, such as Australia highlighting its recently-unveiled ransomware action plan. The government is moving forward with plans to seize cryptocurrency transactions suspected to be involved in ransomware payments, and updating legislation to enhance law enforcement officials’ oversight of the financial ecosystem.

Before moving the meeting to sessions closed to the press, Deputy National Security Adviser for Cyber and Emerging Technology Anne Neuberger said: “There can be moments of extreme difficulty in our work to improve resiliency and fight cybercrime. It will be important moving forward to recall this moment of partnership and that no one country is ever truly alone in the fight against ransomware.”

What’s new from this year’s Counter Ransomware Initiative summit, and what’s next

Action plans, different kinds of meetings and more have all been in the mix, top administration officials told CyberScoop.

White House set to lead 30 nations in ransomware discussions, sans Russia

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Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• The G7 tells industry to hurry up and prep for post-quantum encryption

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

• Dogged Russia-based botnet dismantled after 23-year run

Policy

• Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure