Security News > 2020 > October > G7 Raises Concerns About Rising Cyberattacks Amid Pandemic
Finance ministers from the G7 industrialized countries expressed "Concern" on Tuesday over the rise in "Malicious cyber-attacks" in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, including some involving cryptocurrencies.
These ransomware attacks demanding payments often to facilitate money laundering "Have been growing in scale, sophistication, and frequency" over the past two years, causing "Significant economic damage and customer protection and data privacy," the ministers said.
"The G7 is concerned by the rising threat of ransomware attacks, particularly in light of malicious actors targeting critical sectors amid the COVID-19 pandemic," said the statement from the US Treasury issued on the G7's behalf following their virtual meeting.
Finance ministers from the major euro area economies in September unveiled rules that could limit the development of digital currencies like Facebook's Libra project.
French Minister of Finance, Bruno Le Maire, long a vocal critic of the project, warned that, "We will not accept the deployment of Libra... under current conditions."