The US-led International Counter Ransomware Initiative vows to eliminate cyber criminals’ funding mechanisms.
The 40 nations that form the alliance have announced their intentions never to pay ransom to hackers and to share data that would help catch them.
To achieve this, two information-sharing platforms will be created, one by Lithuania and another by Israel and the United Arab Emirates, officials revealed.
The number of ransomware attacks has significantly grown worldwide over the past couple of years. The US is by far the worst hit, facing an average 46 per cent of such attacks. High-profile cases such as the attacks on casino operator MGM Resorts International and cleaning products maker Clorox are examples of this surge in cyber crime.
“As long as there is money flowing to ransomware criminals, this is a problem that will continue to grow,” said Anne Neuberger, US deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies.
As part of this effort to eliminate cyber criminals’ funding, alliance members have agreed to create a shared blacklist through the US Treasury that will include information on digital wallets used to move ransomware payments.
The plan will also rely on the latest technology, including artificial intelligence and blockchain, to identify illicit funds, White House officials said.
According to data platform Statista, organisations detected 493.33 million ransomware attack attempts last year around the world. The criminals behind these hacks often used data from victims in one country to wage attacks on organisations in another, which makes alliance across countries essential in fighting them.
Over the past three years, the Covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have created conditions favouring a dramatic increase in cyber crime, effectively turning cyberspace into what Australia’s cyber-security agency has described as “the domain of warfare”.
The UK’s NHS, Apple in the US and even the Albanian government have all suffered damaging cyber attacks that have disrupted their services and put their users’ personal information at risk. In August, the UK Electoral Commission apologised after a security breach gave hostile actors access to the names and addresses of 40 million registered voters.
The members of the initiative include Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Israel, Japan, Korea, Nigeria, the European Union, the UK and the US.
