Washington (AFP)

German local community forced to declare a state of "cyber-disaster", Israeli hospital or South African port attacked ... During a virtual summit organized by the United States, some thirty countries shared their concerns about the ransomware phenomenon .

The White House National Security Council, which is organizing the two-day meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, has not invited Russia to attend, however, a senior White House official said.

Although Moscow denies responsibility, most of the recent ransomware attacks against the United States have been blamed on hacker groups that speak Russian or operate from Russian territory.

The summit opened on Wednesday with a plenary session, open to the press.

And few were those, among the thirty or so senior officials who followed one another on the screens, who did not have a recent large-scale attack to deplore.

Participating in the discussions, among others: the United Kingdom, Australia, India, Japan, France, Germany, South Korea, the European Union, Israel, Kenya and Mexico. .

Yigal Unna, who heads the Israeli government's cybersecurity operations, for example said: "Israel is experiencing, as we speak, a major ransomware attack on one of its major hospitals."

Germany recalled that this summer, for the first time, a local authority in the country, the district of Anhalt-Bitterfeld (east), declared a state of "cyber-disaster" after being paralyzed by an attack of the type "ransomware".

The United States has also been hit, especially in the first half of 2021, by numerous ransomware attacks against companies.

These attacks consist of breaking into an entity's networks to encrypt its data, then demanding ransom, most often in bitcoins, in exchange for the key that allows them to be decrypted.

Anne Neuberger, head of cybersecurity in the Biden administration, at the White House on September 2, 2021 CHIP SOMODEVILLA GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / AFP

“We talked about hospitals in Ireland, the Czech Republic, and Israel. Serious disruption to maritime infrastructure in South Africa, 70% year-over-year increase (attacks) in South Korea, 200% in the United Arab Emirates, "said Anne Neuberger, head of cybersecurity in the Biden administration.

- Russia not invited -

"No country alone, no isolated group can solve this problem," said White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan.

"Our governments may have different approaches as to which tools" to use, he said, but they have "this in common: we realize the urgency of the threat, the need to protect our citizens. and our businesses, and the importance of international cooperation to address them. "

He welcomed in particular the active participation of Germany, Australia, India and the United Kingdom in the preparations for the meeting.

President Joe Biden at the White House on July 9, 2021 Brendan Smialowski AFP

These countries organized the thematic workshops that will follow one another on Wednesday and Thursday, around four themes: building resilience in the face of these extortion attempts;

the role of virtual currencies in laundering ransoms;

police and judicial action;

and finally diplomacy.

Asked about Russia's absence, a senior White House official said: "For this first round of talks, we have not invited the Russians for a number of reasons."

This source indicated that Washington and Moscow had already established a "separate communication channel" on the subject.

In July, US President Joe Biden called on Vladimir Putin to act.

A US-Russian panel of experts has been set up and has had "frank discussions," according to the senior White House official.

"We have seen that the Russian government has taken certain actions and we are waiting to see what happens next," the source said, without specifying what those actions were.

© 2021 AFP