The United States will hold summits in more than 30 countries starting Wednesday to discuss how to fight ransomware. “This event over the next few days is Attachment A, which shows how we are working with international partners to disrupt the ransomware network,” officials said. The United States is instead continuing to discuss ransomware issues with Russia through bilateral channels, officials said, and Russia is based on information shared through those discussions to confuse ransomware operators. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in September that ransomware attacks in the United States had increased by 300% over the past year. Cybersecurity experts say that serious efforts to mitigate the effects of ransomware attacks that disrupted the operation of hospitals and other critical infrastructure during a coronavirus pandemic would not succeed without Russia’s involvement.

Source: Wall Street Journal October 29, 2021 18:38 UTC