The Diplomat
Representatives of some thirty countries, convened by the National Security Council of the United States, have been participating since yesterday in a virtual summit against cyber-blackmail, an activity that costs millions of dollars. Spain is not among the participating countries.
The summit will last until Thursday and includes representatives from Australia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Estonia, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Lithuania, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Poland, Republic of Korea, Romania, Singapore, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates and United Kingdom.
The European Union has also been invited to the meeting, which means that, to a certain extent, Spain is present at the meeting, although other EU partners, such as France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Estonia and Bulgaria, have been invited in a private way.
In this way, these countries will be able to benefit from the intelligence and technology that the US security apparatus has at its disposal to deal with cyber-blackmail, which occurs when a programme takes control of the system or device it infects, and asks for a reward to return control to its owner. According to the White House, payments for such cyber-ransomware exceeded $400 million (about €350 million) globally in 2020.
ABC notes that, asked about the absences, a White House official said on Tuesday that those involved “are just close allies”. “There are a number of reasons why certain countries were invited to participate, including agenda, availability of partners and logistical considerations. But most importantly, this is not our first international meeting, and it will not be our last. And the countries that are participating are only close allies”, said.
The newspaper adds that it asked the White House to detail the reasons for Spain’s absence. The response was: “This meeting is the first of many talks between international partners participating this week and beyond. It does not mean that the named countries participating are the only ones we will be working with on counter-cyber-blackmail efforts”.
Reliable sources consulted by The Diplomat indicated that the Spanish government made diplomatic efforts to try to attend the summit, but were unsuccessful.
The Biden Administration’s decision comes after the Spanish government has avoided joining statements of condemnation promoted by the United States against the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela.
The US initiative is, in a way, a way of putting pressure on Moscow and Beijing, since a good number of these attacks perpetrated by hackers, who are difficult to locate, have been located by the White House in Russia and China. Washington has called on the governments of these countries to take action and hold those responsible to account, but has so far had no positive response.
