White House moves to bolster global push against ransomware

The White House is seeking to advance global cooperation between governments and the private sector in combating ransomware operations as it spearheads the two-day International Counter Ransomware Summit, CyberScoop reports. Thirty-six countries including Canada, Australia, South Korea, and United Arab Emirates and the European Union are part of the summit, which is also joined by 13 private sector firms and groups, including Microsoft, Mandiant, CrowdStrike, Cybersecurity Coalition, Cyber Threat Alliance, and the Institute for Security + Technology. Worldwide cooperation in dismantling illicit cryptocurrency use will be emphasized by the U.S., while other countries will be leading five different working groups. India and Lithuania will be heading resilience, and Singapore and the U.K. will be leading virtual currency, while Australia will lead disruption. Public-private partnerships and diplomacy will be headed by Spain and Germany, respectively. "[Ransomware] is really a global problem. We're seeing the pace and the sophistication of the ransomware attacks increase faster than our resilience and disruption efforts," said a senior Biden administration official.