"One of the things we would like to see out of the G7 is the start of an action plan that covers a number of critical areas," Sullivan said during a press briefing. "First, how to deal with increasing the robustness and resilience of our defenses against ransomware attacks collectively... and then finally how we collectively speak with one voice to those countries, including Russia, that are harboring or permitting cyber criminals to operate from their territories."
The Biden administration would also like to see the plan of action lay out steps on how G7 countries can share information to better combat ransomware and how to deal with cryptocurrency transactions that fuel the intrusions.
Last week, the White House said it was in touch with the Russian authorities in light of the hacking attack on the meat-producing giant JBS USA, which led to the closure of its facilities in the United States. The Biden administration said it believes some of the members belonging to the hacker groups reside in Russia.
The Biden administration also said Russia-based hackers breached Colonial Pipeline, one of the United States' largest providers of fuel that provides around 45 percent of the gasoline to the country's East coast. Colonial reportedly paid a ransom of about $5 million to the hackers to regain access to their systems.
