Russia Excluded From Cybercrime Summit

Next Wednesday, the Biden administration is holding a 30-country virtual meeting, but Russia is not among the participants.

Why Is Russia Not on the List

The summit will last for two days and will include six sessions. 

The US, the UK, Australia, Germany, and India will lead the discussions. Other participants include Canada, Japan, Brazil, Israel, South Africa, the European Union, etc. 

The meeting will cover topics such as virtual currency, the threat of ransomware and other cyber attacks, prosecuting cybercriminals, and more.

Russia, however, is notably absent. The reason, according to experts, is that many hacker gangs operate from the country.

A senior official explained: "We are having active discussions with the Russians, but in this particular forum they were not invited to participate."

This, however, does not mean the country will be excluded from future meetings. 

 “We do look to the Russian government to address ransomware criminal activity coming from actors within Russia,” a representative said.

Discussed Measures

Statistics show that the number of ransomware attack cases is growing by 350% every year. Things got even worse during the pandemic.

As the problem is global, the summit will cover ways to counteract it. The White House, however, is already acting. Its plan includes sanctioning a cryptocurrency exchange, that hackers used to launder bitcoin to cash.

The six sessions will also include topics as prosecuting cybercriminals, fighting ransomware with diplomacy, and making nations resilient to such attacks.