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Under the task force’s oversight, federal agencies are taking action such as promoting digital resilience among critical infrastructure companies, working to stop ransom payments made through cryptocurrency platforms, and coordinating activities with US allies, according to a Senate aide who requested anonymity to speak frankly.
The interagency group gives the White House frequent updates on agency efforts, the senior administration official said, adding that the agency is “monitoring, on a weekly basis,” efforts to “implement the national campaign against ransomware “. The official, who briefed reporters on Wednesday evening, spoke anonymously in accordance with White House policy.
Among other measures, the State Department will offer rewards – totaling up to $ 10 million – for information that identifies suspected cybercriminals, especially hackers who perpetrate critical infrastructure breaches sanctioned by state, said the administration official.
The administration is also exploring the possibility of new partnerships with cyber insurance providers and critical infrastructure companies so that businesses and government can share information about ransomware attacks more quickly. “We hope to have more from you about this effort in the coming weeks,” the official told reporters.
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser for cybersecurity and emerging technologies, also presented the administration’s plan during a 35-minute briefing for senators on Wednesday afternoon.
The task force’s announcement comes as lawmakers and experts pressure President Joe Biden to respond more forcefully to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inaction against ransomware operators, who in recent months crippled much of the east coast gasoline supply, crippled a large meat processing company. and raped computer software vendor Kaseya and hundreds of companies connected to it.
“We have to send a very strong, if not disproportionate, message to Russia that we are not going to tolerate this,” John Katko (RN.Y.), House Homeland Security ranking member, told Bloomberg.
But Biden faces few good options to change Putin’s calculation. Years of sanctions have proven ineffective, cryptocurrency regulations face a daunting prospect, allies in Europe are heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies and retaliatory cyber attacks could backfire.
Congress is already pursuing its own options. A bipartisan group of senators is expected to introduce legislation this week or next year to force a wide range of businesses, including critical infrastructure operators, to report hacks to the government. The House Homeland Security Committee is developing similar legislation. Federal officials say the lack of information on private sector violations is hampering their ability to protect the country from digital threats.
At Wednesday’s briefing for lawmakers, officials called for a new authority to establish mandatory cyber standards for critical infrastructure, according to a second Senate aide, who also requested anonymity to discuss the private call.
Neuberger also told senators that the White House will announce three more milestones in the coming days, the first aide said.
DHS’s cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency will launch an interagency website, stopransomware.gov, to gather defensive advice from various agencies. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network will host a virtual ransomware conference in August. And the State Department will use its Rewards for Justice program to offer cash payments for tips leading to the arrest of ransomware operators.
Meanwhile, a glimmer of hope for the ransomware crusade materialized on Tuesday, when the REvil gang, which carried out the attack on Kaseya, suddenly died out. It is not known whether the United States or Russia disrupted REvil’s infrastructure or whether the criminals themselves shut down their servers, as other groups have done in the past following internal feuds or a thorough examination.
The senior administration official refused to clarify the mystery for journalists. “We have noted the disruption to the REvil infrastructure and have no further comments on it at this time,” the official said.
Neuberger did not address the REvil outage during his briefing with lawmakers, Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told reporters in another media call.
As the pace and impact of cyber attacks escalates, Biden is only putting together his core team to deal with them. Chris Inglis was sworn in as the first-ever national cyber director on Monday, overseeing the White House’s defensive efforts. And on Tuesday, hours after the Senate confirmed her, Jen Easterly took over as director of the CISA, giving the besieged agency its first permanent leader since last November.
Neuberger, who joined the White House in January as Biden’s first senior IT official, made almost all the talk during the Senate briefing, according to the Senate’s first aide.
Eric Goldstein, executive assistant director for cybersecurity at CISA, joined her on the call; Todd Conklin, advisor to Assistant Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo; Richard Downing, Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice; and Herb Stapleton, deputy deputy director of the Cyber Division of the FBI.
Lawmakers asked general questions during their call, the Senate first aide said. Sen. Mike Rounds (RS.D.), a prominent member of the Armed Services Panel’s Cyber Subcommittee, asked about potential military cyber operations to confront ransomware gangs. He was told that this issue was best dealt with in a classified setting.
King, co-chair of the Congress-approved Cyberspace Solarium Commission, welcomed the administration’s new initiatives, but said they likely won’t do much to deter Putin.
“These are necessary steps to deal with this problem,” he told reporters, but “deterrence begins with the president’s interactions with Putin over the past month or so.”
“Vladimir Putin understands power and he understands the risk,” King said, “and he must understand that this kind of behavior by the Russian state is unacceptable and will come at a cost.”
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