UNITED STATES: The 50 members of the CRI, including the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, met in Washington, D.C. for the third convening of the initiative. During the meeting, members reaffirmed their commitment to working together to combat ransomware threats and hold perpetrators accountable.
The CRI’s Policy Pillar led efforts to counter the business model that underpins the ransomware ecosystem. This included research on cyber insurance, victim behavior, seizure and confiscation of virtual assets, ransom payments, and best practices in incident reporting and information sharing.
The Diplomacy and Capacity Building Pillar expanded the CRI’s like-minded umbrella by adding 13 new members to the coalition. The pillar also prioritized opportunities to inform potential new members about the initiative and developed tailored capacity-building opportunities to match members’ needs and requests.
The International Counter Ransomware Task Force (ICRTF), established at last year’s meeting, began developing platforms for coordinating and disrupting ransomware at an operational level. The ICRTF will continue to build upon the successes of its inaugural year by operationalizing the tools and platforms developed by its members.
The CRI’s joint policy statement declares that member governments should not pay ransoms. The initiative also created a shared blacklist of wallets through the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s pledge to share data on illicit wallets used by ransomware actors with all CRI members.
The CRI provides an opportunity to create long-term cooperative approaches and common understandings of accountability in cyberspace, consistent with international law as well as state actions as embodied in the Framework for Responsible State Behavior in Cyberspace, endorsed by all United Nations member states.
Overall, the CRI’s joint statement highlights the importance of international cooperation in combating ransomware threats and building collective resilience against future attacks.
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 has released a joint statement outlining their commitment to building collective resilience against ransomware attacks. The statement includes key deliverables for 2023, such as developing capabilities to disrupt attackers and infrastructure, sharing information, and fighting back against ransomware actors.){kind=link}