No contact from Washington over latest ransomware attack, Kremlin says

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has not had any contact from the United States over a sophisticated ransomware attack that hit hundreds of American businesses and led to suspicions of Russian gang involvement, the Interfax news agency cited the Kremlin as saying on Monday.

Security firm Huntress Labs said on Friday it believed the Russia-linked REvil ransomware gang was to blame for the attack. President Joe Biden has directed U.S. intelligence agencies to investigate.

“I have no information that any data was provided. No, no data was received,” Interfax cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying. He said the Kremlin was not aware of the attack.

Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to begin consultations on cybersecurity issues during a summit in Geneva on June 16, with Biden warning of consequences if ransomware attacks emanating from Russia continued to proliferate.

Russia has repeatedly denied carrying out or tolerating cyber attacks.

(Reporting by Anton Kolodyazhnyy and Alexander Marrow; Editing by Kevin Liffey)