The growing activity of extortion groups forces the international alliance to strengthen measures to suppress them. Despite the actions of law enforcement officers, such groups are quickly restored, which requires regular and larger operations.
Anna Neiberger, Deputy Advisor of the US President for Cybersecurity and New Technologies, emphasized that single operations are not able to stop the extortionists forever. At the beginning of this week, she said: “It is necessary to regularly eliminate the infrastructure that is used for attacks and track financial channels that help extortionists to wash the means.”
By the way, just this week the US Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI), created by the United States and includes 68 countries, hosts the US Summit. Recently, the list of CRI members has been replenished, among beginners, Argentina, Bahrain, Cameroon, Chad, Morocco, Hungary, Philippines, Slovenia, Vanuatu, and Vietnam can be noted. The first two days of the summit are devoted to discussing measures to counteract cyber experts and politics in this area. On the third day, issues of interaction between artificial intelligence and cyber protection will be affected.
CRI action plan includes launching a special fund to combat cyber-carlation under the leadership of the US agency for International Development (USAID), the development of recommendations for those affected by attacks, the creation of a private advisory council to exchange information to support the participating countries under cyber stakes, as well as the expansion of the program to ensure cybersecurity of supply chains in the energy sector.
Anna Neiberger noted that while the victims continue to pay ransom, cyber incomes will strive to restore their activities, even after a serious strike on their infrastructure. This emphasizes the need to increase the quantity and intensity of operations against attackers. A special group within the framework of CRI will strengthen the versatile measures of counteraction, attracting more and more countries to work to increase the efficiency of such operations.
Laura Galante, Director of the Center for Integration of Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTIIC), noted a significant increase in the number of cyber attacks in recent years. In 2022, 2,593 attacks were recorded, in 2023 – 4,506, and in the first half of this year – already 2,321 attacks. According to her, groups use decentralized models that allow them to quickly reorganize even after operations to eliminate them