|
The
strategy, which is intended to guide future policy, urges
tighter regulation of existing cybersecurity practices across
industries and improved collaboration between the government and
private sector.
It comes after a series of high-profile hacking incidents by
domestic and foreign actors against the United States and amid
the military conflict between Russia and Ukraine, in which cyber
warfare has featured prominently.
The strategy names China and Russia as the most prominent
cybersecurity threats to the United States. On a call with
reporters, a U.S. official who declined to be named, said part
of the new strategy was aimed at reining in Russian hackers.
"Russia is serving as a de facto safe haven for cybercrime, and
ransomware is a predominant issue that we're dealing with
today," the official said.
Ransomware attacks, in which cyber criminal gangs seize control
of a target's systems and demand ransom payments, are among the
most common type of cyber attacks and have impacted a wide range
of industries in recent years.
"The criminal justice system isn't going to be able to on its
own address this problem – we do need to look at other elements
of national power," the official added. "So we're hopeful that
Russia understands the consequences of malicious activity in
cyberspace, and will continue to be restrained."
The strategy calls for building coalitions with foreign partners
"to create pressure on Russia and other malicious actors to
change their behavior," said a second U.S. official on the call,
who also declined to be named.
"I think we've seen some success in sustaining those coalitions
over the last year," the official added.
Among a range of things, the strategy calls for improving
standards of patching vulnerabilities in computer systems, and
implementing an executive order that would require cloud
companies to verify the identity of foreign customers.
(Reporting by Suzanne Smalley and Zeba Siddiqui; Editing by
Leslie Adler)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2022 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
