White House invites dozens of nations for ransomware summit

The White House is bringing together three dozen nations, the European Union and a slew of private-sector companies for a two-day summit starting Monday that looks at how best to combat ransomware attacks.

The second International Counter Ransomware Summit will focus on priorities such as ensuring systems are more resilient, so they can better withstand attacks and disrupt bad actors planning such assaults.

A senior Biden administration official cited recent attacks such as one that targeted the Los Angeles school district last month to underscore the urgency of the issue and the summit. 

“We’re seeing the pace and the sophistication of the ransomware attacks increasing faster than our resilience and disruption efforts,” the senior administration official explained, in a briefing on the event.  

Among the administration officials planning to participate in the event are FBI Director Christopher Wray, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman. President Joe Biden is not expected to attend.

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

Fifteen private-sector companies that are working with governments to prevent future ransomware attacks will also be attending. The companies that will take part include Crowdstrike, Mandiant, Cyber Threat Alliance, Microsoft, Cybersecurity Coalition, Palo Alto, Flexxon, SAP, the Institute for Security + Technology, Siemens, Internet 2.0, Tata – TCS and Telefónica.

The previous summit took place virtually.

Bo Erickson contributed to this report.

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Christopher Wray
Joe Biden
European Union

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