30+ Nations Pledge to Combat Ransomware, Promote Cyber Resilience

President Biden met with world leaders from over 30 nations and pledged to tackle ransomware threats and promote cyber resilience together, according to a White House press release. The countries agreed to focus resources and energy on improving cyber hygiene, addressing illicit finance risks, and using diplomacy law enforcement actions to stop cybercriminals.

Participating countries included Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, European Union, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

“From malign operations against local health providers that endanger patient care, to those directed at businesses that limit their ability to provide fuel, groceries, or other goods to the public, ransomware poses a significant risk to critical infrastructure, essential services, public safety, consumer protection and privacy, and economic prosperity,” the press release explained.

“As with other cyber threats, the threat of ransomware is complex and global in nature and requires a shared response. A nation’s ability to effectively prevent, detect, mitigate and respond to threats from ransomware will depend, in part, on the capacity, cooperation, and resilience of global partners, the private sector, civil society, and the general public.”

Together, the nations pledged to implement policy frameworks, governance structures, and incident response procedures to bolster network resilience. Basic cyber hygiene measures, including multi-factor authentication, strong passwords, offline data backups, and software patches are essential to improving cyber resilience.

The group of nations also agreed to promote incident information sharing between ransomware victims and law enforcement to help other organizations mitigate cyber risks.

In addition, the nations pledged to facilitate international cooperation in tracing ransomware payment flows and countering illicit finance.

“Taking action to disrupt the ransomware business model requires concerted efforts to address illicit finance risks posed by all value transfer systems, including virtual assets, the primary instrument criminals use for ransomware payments and subsequent money laundering,” the announcement continued.

The US Treasury recently imposed sanctions against SUEX, a cryptocurrency exchange that allegedly facilitated ransomware payments for cybercriminals. The action marked the first-ever sanctions against a cryptocurrency exchange.

“Beyond implementing measures to improve resilience and harden our financial system from exploitation, we must also act to degrade and hold accountable ransomware criminal operators,” the announcement maintained. 

“Ransomware criminal activity is often transnational in nature, and requires timely and consistent collaboration across law enforcement, national security authorities, cybersecurity agencies, and financial intelligence units.”

With a global network of nations combatting cybercrime, the group aims to prevent bad actors from interacting with the ransomware ecosystem. The US plans to leverage international relationships to encourage diplomatic efforts and promote cyber hygiene, while also working with state governments to ensure nationwide security.

“Noting that law enforcement and cybersecurity capacity can be significant limiting factors in a state’s ability to address cybercrime, diplomacy in the form of coordinated capacity building has potential to serve as a force multiplier in the fight against ransomware,” the press release concluded.

“We will share approaches to capacity building, highlight resources and programs that are available, and take steps to coordinate such work when appropriate to ensure capacity building complements other actions to minimize the ransomware threat.”