Last month, Mr. Biden used the summit with Mr. Putin to make the case that ransomware was emerging as an even larger threat, causing the kind of economic disruption that no state could tolerate. Mr. Biden specifically cited the halting of the flow of gasoline on the East Coast after an attack on Colonial Pipeline in June, as well as the shutdown of major meat-processing plants and earlier ransomware attacks that paralyzed hospitals. On Tuesday, the White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, said American officials will meet with Russian officials next week to discuss ransomware attacks — a dialogue the two leaders had agreed upon at their summit in Geneva. The remarks, cybersecurity experts said, were Mr. Putin’s response to the summit with Mr. Biden. Before the 2020 election, United States Cyber Command took down the servers of a major Russian cybercriminal operation to prevent it from locking up voting infrastructure.

Source: International New York Times July 06, 2021 23:56 UTC