The US Treasury Department has announced a new partnership with Israel to expand bilateral cooperation for tackling ransomware.

The partnership was consolidated at meetings held by the US Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo in Israel with Yigal Unna, National Cyber Directorate, and Finance Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

Under the agreement, the two parties will induce a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) supporting information exchanges associated with joint trading, financial sector and exercises on cybersecurity. It will cater to cybersecurity threat intelligence within financial sector and focus on study visits and staff training to promote cooperation in cybersecurity.

The MOU will also incorporate cross-border cybersecurity exercises connected to financial and investment flows of global financial institutions.

Expansion of the cooperation will be backed by a broader US-Israel task force based on cybersecurity and fintech innovation, said the US Treasury Department.

The task force will conduct a series of expert technical exchanges on regulation, policy and outreach to extend support to fintech innovation, combatting money laundering counter and tackling terror financing.

Augmenting the cooperation, the US Treasury officials will be active participants in the CyberTech Global Tel-Aviv conference to be held in January 2022.

Mr. Adeyemo states that channeling the power of technology innovation and that of the international cooperation will solidify the position of the US to ensure prosperity, enable economic competitiveness, and to combat ransomware and other global threats.

Prevalence of ransomware coupled with other illicit finance threats in the time of economic recovery are presenting the US and Israel with a critical challenge, making information exchanges, joint work, collaboration on policy, enforcement and regulation more critical, he added.  

Mr. Adeyemo stressed upon the significance of the above-mentioned factors in line with the economic and national security objectives of the parties.

He is visiting several Middle eastern countries, with scheduled stops in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, conducting meetings and discussions on building cooperation on ransomware and cybersecurity, addressing post-COVID economic recovery and combatting terrorist financing.

Source Credits: https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-announces-partnership-with-israel-to-combat-ransomware/