US and EU agreed to fight against ransomware attacks

In June 2021 there was an EU-U.S. Ministerial Meeting on Justice and Home Affairs hosted under the Portuguese Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The parties highlighted the increased number of ransomware attacks during the pandemic which led to serious disruptions on the parts of national critical infrastructures. In the joint statement EU and US agreed to combat ransomware including through law enforcement action, raising public awareness on how to protect networks as well as the risk of paying the criminals responsible, and to encourage those states that turn a blind eye to this crime to arrest and extradite or effectively prosecute criminals on their territory.