President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the ransomware attack on the Florida-based IT company Kaseya did “minimal damage” to American companies.
Friday’s ransomware attack wreaked havoc on the data of hundreds of small businesses around the world, including many in the United States.
The attack was led by REvil, a notorious Russian-linked cybercrime syndicate.
The president’s statements follow a similar statement from Kaseya that the attack never posed a threat to critical U.S. infrastructure, which Biden declared taboo during a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early June.
Regardless, the attack was another example of how cybercriminals believed to be operating from Russia pose a serious threat to the U.S.
Biden has pushed Putin to get Russian cybercriminals to cease their activities.
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that senior U.S. officials would meet with their Russian counterparts next week to discuss the ransomware issue.
On Wednesday, Biden will meet with officials from the Justice Department, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community to discuss efforts to combat the ransomware threat.
The hack that hit Kaseya’s customers – many of whom are back-office IT shops commonly referred to as managed service providers – did not have the same effect in the U.S. as the rupture of the Colonial Pipeline.
In countries such as Sweden, New Zealand and Germany, the disturbances were more severe.
Psaki also said that while the government had advised against paying ransoms to cybercriminals, questions about whether the data would be redeemed should be addressed to Kaseya.
For more informatoin, read the original story in Reuters.