Just a day after the Biden administration introduced a comprehensive executive order on artificial intelligence, the White House is now hosting leaders from around the globe to address another critical concern: ransomware. The third installment of the International Counter Ransomware Summit commenced on Tuesday, drawing representatives from approximately 50 nations. Biden officials aim to leverage this gathering to finalize a series of initiatives aimed at combatting the “ransomware ecosystem.”
Ransomware attacks entail the theft or encryption of an organization’s data, followed by a demand for payment in exchange for its return or continued confidentiality.
“We’ve witnessed a surge in global ransomware attacks in the first half of 2023,” stated Anne Neuberger, Biden’s Deputy National Security Advisor focusing on cybersecurity, in an interview with Yahoo Finance ahead of the conference. White House data reveals a 45% surge in ransomware attacks compared to the latter half of 2022.
In recent years, this realm of cybercrime has evolved into a certified industry, with hackers—many originating from locations like Russia—launching attacks targeting a wide array of entities, spanning private corporations, critical infrastructure projects, healthcare facilities, and even entire governments.
Business and government leaders have congregated in Washington this week to exchange intelligence and deliberate on government and private sector diligence regarding this issue at the International Counter Ransomware Summit. Moreover, the White House seeks to foster consensus and coordinate the introduction of new initiatives, including endeavors to monitor and blacklist hackers’ digital wallets, as well as a new platform for expedited threat sharing among governments.
This summit is an integral component of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative, initiated in 2021 with 30 members, and has since expanded in tandem with the escalating threat.
While ransomware attacks this year may not have garnered the widespread attention as those in 2021 (such as the Colonial Pipeline and JBS meat incidents), the frequency of these economically detrimental attacks has, nonetheless, surged.
In recent months, entities ranging from Clorox to CommonSpirit Health, a Catholic healthcare system, have disclosed attacks and ransom disbursements. Just this past weekend, Stanford University disclosed an investigation into a recent cybersecurity incident within the school’s Department of Public Safety.
While precise data on ransomware attacks remains challenging to ascertain due to organizations often opting to not publicly disclose breaches, experts concur that a surge has been evident this year.
Anti-ransomware firm BlackFog recently characterized 2023 as “another record-breaking year” for ransomware, citing a substantial list of publicly disclosed attacks, in addition to thousands that remain undisclosed.
A recent confidential notification from the Federal Bureau of Investigation alerted to a new iteration of the threat: the emergence of dual ransomware attacks, targeting the same company in rapid succession.
The Biden administration’s directive to private companies is twofold: abstain from paying ransoms and, crucially, report the attacks to aid government enforcement efforts, thus spotlighting the perpetrators who often operate in secrecy.
“If in doubt, report it out,” advises the White House’s guidance for businesses.
A significant facet of this week’s conference involves the sharing of fresh intelligence with foreign governments, particularly pertinent in light of recent attacks in locations as diverse as Costa Rica and Israel.
Another facet of intelligence-sharing endeavors is the creation of a shared blacklist of cryptocurrency-holding digital wallets, a move intended to compel hackers to establish new, cumbersome wallets rather than reuse them globally.
“We understand there’s no silver bullet to halt ransomware actors; we simply aim to make it riskier, costlier, and more challenging,” Neuberger added in reference to initiatives like the digital wallets database.
AI also constitutes a major focal point in this week’s cybersecurity discussions, loosely linked to the Biden administration’s broader AI executive order unveiled on Monday, encompassing topics from sharing AI models with the government to immigration policy.
In remarks on Monday, President Biden underscored the direct connection between AI and cybersecurity, cautioning that “in the wrong hands, AI can make it easier for hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in the software that makes our society run.”
On the ransomware front, Biden officials seek to rally consensus at this week’s conference around an initiative that would employ AI to drive new blockchain analysis efforts, utilizing the technology to more effectively sift through terabytes of digital data for leads. Simultaneously, there exists an awareness that these hackers can—and likely already are—employing AI to fuel increasingly malevolent intrusion tools.
In an interview earlier this year, business executive Betsy Atkins characterized AI as an “exponential weapon we put in the cyber criminals’ hands.”
As President Biden emphasized on Monday in relation to the government’s stance on AI: “To realize the promise of AI and mitigate the risks, we need to govern this technology.”
Source: Yahoo Finance
