US says dozens of countries have signed up to pledge never to pay ransomware hackers
Forty countries are expected to sign a pledge today to never pay ransoms to cybercriminals again. The signing should take place during the third annual International Counter-Ransomware Initiative (CRI) summit, which kicked off earlier this week in Washington, DC.
The measure comes in direct response to the recent wave of record-breaking ransomware activity, said Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology.
“Ransomware is a problem that knows no borders. And as long as money flows to ransomware criminals, the problem will continue to grow,” Neuberger told reporters on Monday.
Talking strategy
Nearly half (46%) of all ransomware incidents target U.S. companies, Neuberger said.
Representatives from 48 countries will attend the initiative, along with those from the European Union and Interpol. However, not all of them will sign the pledge, it was said.
In addition, the partners are expected to discuss strategies regarding blocking the funds that the criminals use to finance their operations.
“We want to tackle the root cause of the ransomware, which is its financing, and do it together. This was really great progress and we are still in the final stages of getting every member to sign, but we are almost there , and that is exciting,” said a senior government official.
Ransomware is currently one of the biggest cyber threats facing both the private and public sectors. When it targets critical infrastructure operators, it can disrupt important operations in the physical world, such as the distribution of oil and gas, as we saw in the Colonial Pipeline incident. It could also potentially result in death if the attackers encrypt key systems in a hospital or similar healthcare organization.
Ransomware operators typically steal sensitive data and encrypt endpoints, threatening to release the data on the Internet unless a cryptocurrency payment is made.
More recently, some threat actors don’t even bother to encrypt the data they’ve stolen, but instead threaten to sell or make it public, hoping that this alone will give them enough power to demand high ransoms.
Through BleepingComputer