The White House recently announced that it would elevate ransomware attacks to a similar priority as terrorist attacks and would create a new task force. Earlier this month, Joe Biden met with President Putin and reportedly gave him a list of 16 critical American infrastructure sectors that White House wants Russia to accept as "off limits" from cyber attacks, including energy and water utilities. Putin said Russia had nothing to do with the Colonial Pipeline attack and instead stated that the United States is responsible for most of the world's cyber attacks.

National Guardsmen just completed a two-week training exercise which saw them respond to a simulated cyberattack that took out critical utilities across the United States. The exercises have become an annual event, but this year took on even more significance after coming on the heels of several major ransomware and cyber attacks that crippled large parts of American infrastructure in recent months.