The U.S. President’s national security advisor calls on the G7 to unite and fight against the consistent ransomware attacks on national sites. In a briefing from the White House press, Jake Sullivan, selected as Joe Biden’s national security advisor, addressed the growing number of ransomware cases and hopes the upcoming G7 meeting will come up with an action plan to stop the vice.

In the briefing, Sullivan also called on the regulation of cryptocurrencies, which poses a challenge as “the core of how these ransomware attacks are carried out,” he stated. Earlier in the week, the U.S. Department of Justice seized $2.3 million in Bitcoin paid in ransom by Colonial Pipeline to a group of hackers known as Darkside.

The U.S. officials heading to the United Kingdom later this week are also planning to discuss the challenges that digital currencies pose to the global financial system, Sullivan added.

“It is important to deal with the cryptocurrency challenge which lies at the core of how these ransomware attacks are carried out.”

“Ransomware is a national security priority.”

Cryptocurrency has always been synonymous with ransomware attacks. In a Chainalysis report this May, over $81 million in crypto was sent as ransom to hackers since the start of 2021. One of such attacks is on Colonial Pipeline by a group of individual hackers known as Darkside. After paying a hefty $5 million in ransom in May, the DoJ confirmed on Monday that they had recovered the 63.7 BTC, trading at $2.3 million at the time.

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