US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told CNN that Russia has an obligation to stop cyberattacks like those on the JBS meatpacking plant and the Colonial Pipeline, not "harbor criminal enterprises that engage in these attacks," Report informs.
Asked if he had spoken to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about the latest ransomware attack on JBS, which has meat production plants around the country, Blinken said he had not been in touch with his Russian counterpart since they met May 19.
"I think it's the obligation of any country to do whatever it can to find these enterprises and to bring them to justice, including in the case of the attack on the Colonial Pipeline. The enterprise that was responsible [for] that attack, its leaders were in Russia, are in Russia, so I think there's an obligation on Russia's part to make sure that that doesn't continue," Blinken said.
Both the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline, which triggered gas shortages along the eastern US in May, and the ransomware assault on JBS have been attributed to groups affiliated with Russia.
The JBS hack, which the White House described as ransomware deployed by Russia-based criminals, affected all of the company's US meatpacking facilities, according to an official at the United Food and Commercial Workers union that represents JBS employees. The cyberattack resulted in the closure of plants in Arizona, Texas, Nebraska, Colorado, Wisconsin, Utah, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, the union official said.