President Joe Biden said Tuesday that the ransomware attack on the Florida-based IT company Kaseya did “minimal damage” to American companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Friday’s ransomware attack wreaked havoc on the data of hundreds of small businesses around the world, including many in the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The attack was led by REvil, a notorious Russian-linked cybercrime syndicate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Regardless, the attack was another example of how cybercriminals believed to be operating from Russia pose a serious threat to the U.S.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Biden has pushed Putin to get Russian cybercriminals to cease their activities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In countries such as Sweden, New Zealand and Germany, the disturbances were more severe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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.<\/p>\n\n\n