White House urges businesses to protect against ransomware threats as disruptions across U.S. increase

Ransomware incidents are increasing in size and number across the United States, forcing shutdowns across varied industries in recent weeks, from a meat processing plant in the Midwest to a pipeline that carries gasoline and jet fuel and serves the Southeast.  

The increase and severity of the attacks prompted the Biden administration on June 2 to issue an open letter to business leaders asking them to treat the threat of ransomware attacks with great urgency. The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights on June 8 shared the White House alerts with specific recommendations from the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to protect facilities and systems from malware attacks. 

CISA also warned of a “critical VMware vulnerability” and asked businesses to patch the vulnerability as soon as it is detected. VMware is cloud computing software, and the vulnerability exists in the VMware VCenter Server and…

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