attacks President Joe Biden has told President Putin the US will take “any necessary action” to prevent cyber-attacks from Russia, the White House says. A reporter asked Mr. Biden after the hour-long telephone call if Russia would face consequences, and he said: “Yes.” But Moscow denied US claims they’d contacted the Russians repeatedly about the cyber-attacks within the past month. Friday’s call between Mr. Putin and Mr. Biden follows their meeting last month in Geneva. It also comes amid a rise in attacks, including one that disabled 1,500 companies this month. “I made it very clear to him that u. s. expects when a ransomware operation is coming from his soil, while it is not sponsored by the state, we expect them to act if we give them enough information to act on who that’s,” Mr. Biden told media after the telephone call. When a journalist asked whether the US could attack the servers employed by the hackers, the Democratic president said: “Yes.” But after Friday’s call, the Kremlin said the US had not contacted Moscow about the cyber-attacks. “Despite readiness from the Russian side to jointly throttle on criminal activity within the informational sphere, over the past month no requests are received from the relevant US departments,” said an announcement from Mr. Putin’s office. An unnamed senior US official denied Russia’s claim, telling AFP press agency the Biden administration had made “multiple, specific requests for action”. The Kremlin statement added that each side supported further co-operation on cyber-security, which Russia said: “must be permanent, professional and non-politicized and may be conducted via special communication channels… and with relation to international law”. A White House readout of the decision states that either side agreed to a deal that will see more humanitarian aid for Syria, signifying that the 2 leaders see opportunities for cooperation, despite tensions over cyberspace. Ransomware attacks – where criminal syndicates hijack companies’ data and demand payment for its return – have exploded in recent years. According to the US, many of the worst attackers come from Russia and infrequently operate with tacit knowledge, and even approval, from Russian security services. Mr. Biden said on Friday that the decision came as a part of a brand new, “more direct means of communication”. The new connection, Mr. Biden said, allows either side to “communicate to at least one another when each people thinks something’s happening within the other country. “It affects the house country. so it went well. I’m optimistic.” The message Mr. Biden said he had delivered on Friday was kind of like the message that he brought when the 2 leaders held their first face-to-face meeting last month in Switzerland. Since then, the Russian or Eastern European-based REvil hacking group unleashed an enormous attack that caused outages across the world. The hacking placed increased pressure on Mr. Biden to try and do something to counter the threats. During Mr. Biden’s meeting in Geneva last month, he provided the Russians with an inventory of 16 sectors that has to not be attacked.
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