To combat the illicit use of cryptocurrency and the increasing cybersecurity threats in the United States, President Joe Biden has announced a partnership with 30 countries worldwide, including NATO allies and G7 nations. On the occasion of the commencement of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the White House released President Biden’s statement on October 1.

President Biden explained that the U.S. is “partnering closely with nations around the world” to respond to the cybersecurity threats, “including our NATO allies and G7 partners.” This month, he added, “The United States will bring together 30 countries to accelerate our cooperation in combating cybercrime, improving law enforcement collaboration, stemming the illicit use of cryptocurrency, and engaging on these issues diplomatically.”

“The Federal government needs the partnership of every American and every American company in these efforts. We must lock our digital doors — by encrypting our data and using multifactor authentication, for example—and we must build technology securely by design, enabling consumers to understand the risks in the technologies they buy,” Biden continued.

The U.S. president opined: “I am committed to strengthening our cybersecurity by hardening our critical infrastructure against cyberattacks, disrupting ransomware networks, working to establish and promote clear rules of the road for all nations in cyberspace, and making clear we will hold accountable those that threaten our security.”

In his announcement on cybersecurity efforts, the President highlighted the following points:

1. The United States is committed to strengthening cybersecurity by working towards establishing and promoting clear rules for all nations in cyberspace and holding the guilty accountable.
2. The United States will cooperate in combating cybercrime, improve law enforcement collaboration and engage diplomatically with 30 nations to stop illegal cryptocurrency usage.
3. Biden said that the coalition of nations would invest in and support 5G technology to secure the supply chains in a better way.
4. The U.S. will bring potential technologies to disrupt malicious attacks while managing the opportunities of the new technology, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence.
5. Biden urged American citizens to keep themselves digitally safe by encrypting data and ensuring multifactor authentication.
6. The President also drew the attention of Americans to the executive order issued in May for modernizing defense and ensuring secure software to every American by using federal technology.

Biden To Raise A Coalition Of 30 Countries To Combat The Illicit Use Of Cryptocurrencieshttps://t.co/UojBNAcbhw

— John Morgan (@johnmorganFL) October 3, 2021

Ransomware attacks have been on the rise in the United States in the recent past, reaching $400 million in 2020, four times that of 2019. The Biden administration has recently been increasing efforts to fight ransomware. In September, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced “a set of actions focused on disrupting criminal networks and virtual currency exchanges responsible for laundering ransoms” as part of the whole-of-government effort to counter ransomware.

The Bank of International Settlements (BIS) had also said in its annual economic report published in June that in many cases, cryptocurrencies “are used to facilitate money laundering, ransomware attacks, and other financial crimes.”