Florian Schütz attends Counter Ransomware Initiative annual summit
Bern, 07.10.2024 - Florian Schütz, Director of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), took part last week in the Counter Ransomware Initiative annual summit as head of the Swiss delegation. Approaches and solutions to combat ransomware attacks were discussed and concrete measures presented at the four-day summit. In a bilateral meeting, the NCSC director and the director of the Information Tech-nology Laboratory of the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) agreed to boost their technical cooperation.
The fourth annual summit of the International Counter Ransomware Initiative (CRI) took place over four days in Washington DC last week. This White House-led initiative was established by the United States in 2021 and now comprises 68 member states, including Switzerland. The initiative aims to jointly develop collective resilience against ransomware, support member states when they are confronted with a ransomware attack, track the actors responsible for such an attack and prevent them finding a safe haven wherever possible. The CRI also works with the private sector.
Concrete solutions to deal with ransomware attacks
Several of Switzerland's federal authorities are involved in increasing resilience to ran-somware attacks. The NCSC is responsible for coordinating these activities, and so the Swiss delegation to the CRI summit was led by NCSC director Florian Schütz. A range of approaches to combating ransomware attacks were discussed at the summit and several concrete solutions were presented. These included the international over-view drawn up by the NCSC and good practices on reporting obligations in the event of ransomware incidents, as well as a proposal for the standardised gathering of relevant information in the event of a ransomware incident. Switzerland and the Swiss Insur-ance Association (SVV), together with other states and insurance associations, sup-port the CRI guidelines for organisations on how to deal with ransomware incidents.
Close cooperation agreed with NIST
In bilateral meetings on the fringes of the CRI annual summit, Mr Schütz and Kevin Stine, Director of the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST), agreed to intensify technical cooperation between their two institutions. One of NIST's fields of responsibility is the Cyber Security Framework, which has established itself as the de facto standard for internal cyberse-curity processes and organisation in business and government. Closer cooperation on further developing these standards allows Switzerland to contribute its experience and represent its interests.
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