The United States and Spain are partnering to create a “capacity-building tool” for equipping countries’ to utilize “public-private partnerships” to combat ransomware.
Spain is chairing the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s Working Group for public-private partnerships to develop a tool that will provide guidance to counties wanting to develop or deepen public-private partnerships to combat ransomware, a news release said.
Ransomware is a type of “malicious software” that blocks access to a computer system or threatens to publish a victim’s personal data until money is paid, according to Wikipedia.
“Building capacity across the world is an essential aspect of our fight against ransomware,” Brandon Wales, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s executive director, said in the release. “By learning from each other, public and private sector alike, and sharing that knowledge more broadly, we can effectively protect the critical infrastructure necessary to sustain not only American society, but the global institutions and networks upon which it relies.”
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, the U.S. Department of State and the Spanish Ministry of the Interior are working on the project, developed as part of the Second International Counter Ransomware Initiative that met Oct. 31-Nov. 1 in Washington, D.C.
“Spain has the strong conviction that this project will contribute in a decisive manner to expose the most innovative state of the art of PPP best practices to fight against ransomware,” Guillermo Ardizone Garcίa, political director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in the release.
"Thereby, all multi-stakeholders and partners involved in the CRI will be benefited from this line of action,” he added.
