Security News > 2021 > October > Over 30 Countries Pledge to Fight Ransomware Attacks in US-led Global Meeting

Representatives from the U.S., the European Union, and 30 other countries pledged to mitigate the risk of ransomware and harden the financial system from exploitation with the goal of disrupting the ecosystem, calling it an "Escalating global security threat with serious economic and security consequences."

Besides promoting incident information sharing between ransomware victims and relevant law enforcement and cyber emergency response teams, the initiative aims to improve mechanisms put in place to effectively respond to such attacks, while also countering the abuse of financial infrastructure to launder ransom payments.

In late September 2021, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Russian cryptocurrency exchange Suex for helping threat actors launder transactions from at least eight ransomware variants, marking the first instance of such an action against a virtual currency exchange.

"Treasury will continue to disrupt and hold accountable these ransomware actors and their money laundering networks to reduce the incentive for cybercriminals to continue to conduct these attacks," the U.S. government said.

In the first half of 2021 alone, ransomware-based financial activity is estimated to have extracted at least $590 million for the threat actors, with the mean average total monthly suspicious amount of ransomware transactions pegged at $66.4 million.

"Financial institutions should determine if a SAR filing is required or appropriate when dealing with a ransomware incident, including ransomware- related payments made by financial institutions that are victims of ransomware."

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