WASHINGTON, Oct 13 - RIA Novosti. The United States did not invite Russia to the first multilateral meeting dedicated to developing a strategy to combat ransomware viruses, but it does not exclude its participation in such events in the future, a senior representative of the US administration said.
The virtual meeting, which is being held on Wednesday and Thursday at the initiative of the White House, will be attended by ministers and other high-ranking officials from 30 countries.
She added that Russia and the United States are cooperating in solving the problem of ransomware viruses in a bilateral format. "We have a separate channel through which we are actively discussing with Russia the problem of ransomware viruses," the official said.
Among the participants of the meeting are Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, the European Union, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, South Korea, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.
The United States blames hacker criminal groups based in the Russian Federation for the most high-profile cyberattacks demanding ransom, and demands that the Russian authorities stop their activities. Moscow denies involvement in hacking, but expresses readiness to cooperate with the United States.
Following the results of the Russian-American summit held in Geneva in June, the parties held several rounds of consultations at the level of experts on information security.
