US Leads Global Alliance Against Ransomware, 40 Countries Pledge Not To Pay Ransom

JAKARTA - A senior White House official announced that forty countries in an alliance led by the US plan to sign an oath never to pay ransom to cybercriminals. They also agreed to work off hacker funding mechanisms.

The International Counter Ransomware initiative, launched Tuesday, October 31, in line with the increasing ransomware attacks around the world. According to Anne Neuberger, US national security adviser in President Joe Biden's administration for cyber and emerging technologies, the US is the most affected country, with 46% of such attacks.

"With the flow of money to ransomware criminals, this problem will continue to grow," Neuberger told reporters in a virtual briefing session.

In ransomware attacks, hackers encrypt the organizational system and demand ransom payments in exchange for reopening it. Often they also steal sensitive data and use it to extort victims and leak the data online if payments are not made.

While hundreds of companies are victims each year, US attacks that have surfaced in the past two months have occurred on the operators of the MGM Resorts International casino and the makers of Clorox cleaning products. The two companies have not fully recovered from the disruption.

"The alliance's new initiative aims to eliminate criminal funding through the provision of better information about ransom payment accounts," Neuberger said. Two information sharing platforms will be created, one by Lithuania and the other jointly by Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

"MartNER countries will share "black lists" through the US Treasury Department that will contain information about digital wallets used to move ransomware payments," Neuberger added.

He added that this effort would use artificial intelligence to analyze blockchain with the aim of identifying illegal funds.

The volume of crypto payments to ransomware attackers is on track to record the second-largest total annuality in history, blockchain analytics company Chainalysis reported in July.