The US will convene a meeting with its NATO allies and G7 countries this month with the sole intention of addressing the threat of ransomware, President Joe Biden has shared .
“This month, the United States will bring together 30 countries to accelerate our cooperation in combating cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically,“ said President Biden in a statement.
While ransomware has been one of the major sources of digital disruptions for the past few years, the cybercriminals have taken undue advantage of the loopholes that appeared as businesses migrated to remote working in response to the global pandemic.
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There have been some brazen attacks this year, such as the one on Colonial Pipeline, which have not just affected the targets, but have also disrupted the supply-chain and impacted common citizens as well.
Global response
In the statement, Biden highlighted some of the steps taken by his administration to reign in the threat, including the executive order in May to reinforce software supply chains.
“Our 100-day action plan to improve cybersecurity across the electricity sector has already resulted in more than 150 utilities serving 90 million Americans committing to deploy cybersecurity technologies, and we are working to deploy action plans for additional critical infrastructure sectors,” shared President Biden.
Stressing that cyber threats affect everyone, President Biden added that it’s time that countries start working together to “establish and promote clear rules of the road....making clear we will hold accountable those that threaten our security.”
Interestingly, the statement also called on the help of the private sector by encouraging the move to mechanisms such as encryption and multi-factor authentication (MFA), to strengthen cybersecurity.
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