Biden tells Putin to “disable” ransomware groups operating outside Russia

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President Biden asked Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday to “disable” ransomware groups operating outside Russia amid another string of attacks this week.

“I’ve made it very clear to him that the United States expects a ransom operation from his territory, even though it’s not state-sponsored, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to work out who it is,” Biden said.

The White House has faced mounting pressure to address a surge in ransomware attacks after the summit with Putin last month.

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Despite Biden and Putin agreeing to work together to stop costly attacks, Russia-based cybercrime group Revel has claimed responsibility for the largest attack to date, affecting as many as 1,500 companies, schools and hospitals globally.

In addition to the July 4th attack over the weekend, the Republican National Convention said on Tuesday that one of its technology providers, Synnex, had been hacked.

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In a phone conversation between the two world leaders Friday, Biden warned Putin that the United States would take “any necessary action” to defend American infrastructure and directed government agencies to prepare.

When asked by reporters after the call, Biden said it made sense to attack the servers used in the recent ransomware attacks, but he did not go into details of the United States’ strategy to go after the perpetrators.

The president also said he believed the United States would “get cooperation” from Russia, but said it was not “appropriate” to comment on what he expected Putin to do.

But after their conversation on Friday afternoon, the Kremlin released a transcript of the meeting and claimed that “no requests have been received” from the United States regarding cybersecurity.

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A senior administration official responded to these allegations and explained that multiple actions had been transmitted through Russian channels.

The White House said only time will tell how Russia will respond to US calls for action.

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