Biden to Putin: Stop cybercriminals

The president’s hour-long talks, according to the White House, centered on “the ongoing extortion attacks by Russian-based criminals that have targeted the United States and other countries around the world.”

The conference call comes on the heels of several major cyber attacks. In May, the largest oil pipeline in the United States was shut down as a result of a ransomware attack. In early July, an attack on American IT supplier Kaseya had consequences for hundreds of customer companies, including Swedish Coop, which was forced to temporarily close all stores. Many cybercrime groups are headquartered in Russia.

The United States did not accuse Russia of meddling. However, the state pushes the line that Russia is obligated to act.

“President Biden stressed the importance of Russia taking action against ransomware groups,” the White House said.

According to the Russian news agency Interfax, the press service of the Kremlin describes the phone meeting as constructive. President Putin is said to have stressed that the issue should not be politicized. Regarding US demands for Russian action, the answer is a bit bad:

“With regard to recent reports of cyber-attacks allegedly perpetrated from Russian territory, Putin noted that despite the Russian side’s readiness to jointly crack down on cybercrime, there were no requests from the relevant US authorities in the past month,” the press wrote. Services.