Biden pressures Putin to crack down on ransomware attacks

A series of computer attacks on American companies has led to the exclusion of important social features around the world. Now Biden is threatening to launch a counterattack if Russia does not take action.

In recent months, there have been several large-scale hacker attacks on socially significant targets in the United States and Europe. Hackers use viruses to put computer systems out of action and demand a ransom to relinquish control. According to US authorities and computer security experts, the attacks were carried out by criminal networks in Russia.

US authorities say they have no information about Russian authorities’ involvement in last week’s massive attacks Information technology company Kaseya in Florida. However, the United States expects Russia to take responsibility for cracking down on hacker groups operating in the country.

The issue was first discussed in a meeting between Biden and Putin on June 16 Geneva. There, Biden warned that the United States would launch counterattacks if Russia did not clean up.

Biden is optimistic

In an hour-long phone conversation between the two presidents last Friday, Joe Biden is said to have expressed impatience with solving the problem, he writes Reuters. Then they talked on the phone for an hour.

“I made it clear to him that the United States expects that when a computer attack comes from his country, even if those attacks are not state-backed, we expect them to act if we give them enough information,” Biden said.

Biden says the two governments set up a hotline on a regular basis “when we both think something is going on in the other country and affecting our home.”

“I’m an optimist,” Biden said.

The US has not said how it plans to respond to the attacks, but Biden has hinted at digital retaliation if the Russians do not cooperate.

When a Reuters reporter asked him if it was related to the attack on the Russian servers used in the attacks, Biden smiled and said: – Yes.

However, the authorities of the two countries differ on whether the United States has formally requested Russia’s help in stopping the attacks.
A senior government official in the Biden administration told Reuters that any retaliation could come soon.

– We will not indicate what these concrete measures will be. Some will be clear and visible, and some not. But we expect to be held in the coming days and weeks, he told reporters.

Affected cooperative stores

The ransomware virus has been used to paralyze thousands of US organizations and companies around the world and triggered a number of high-profile crises.

Friday 2 July crashed Coop . cash register system In Sweden. All stores had to close last weekend. This was a result of the attack on Kaseya, which provides IT systems to at least 200 American companies that were also affected.
Russian hacker group Revel claimed responsibility for the attack 600 million kroner to liberate computer systems.

Brett Kahlo, ransomware expert, sire He knows of no other attack of this magnitude.

He compares it to the SolarWinds attack in December, when a number of companies and government agencies in the United States were attacked. The United States accuses Russia of being behind the attack.
The ransomware virus has also affected hospitals in IrelandAustralia’s meat supply and fuel supply I am USA الولايات. The latter attacked the first for fuel shortages, price increases and panic over gasoline hoarding. In the end, the company paid colonial pipeline About 40 million kroner for pirates.