Biden warns meeting with Putin

United States President Joe Biden said there is no evidence that directly links the Russian government to the cyber attack of a Russian-based group targeting the largest oil transport pipeline in the US.

During a press conference Monday, President Biden said he would meet with his Russian counterpart.

I'll meet with President Putin. So far, there is no evidence from our intelligence agencies for Russia's involvement, though there is evidence that the attack came from Russia. They have the responsibility to deal with this“, said Mr. Biden.

Meanwhile, a senior White House National Security official said intelligence agencies are working to determine whether the pipeline hackers are related to the Russian government, which has been denied by Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

He urged Washington to boost co-operation between the two countries in order to improve cyber security.

“We think that global co-operation and between the two countries can help joint combat cyber attacks”, Mr. Peskov said during a press conference.

The group calling itself “Darchside”, a Russian cybercrime gang, said through a statement that the attack on the colonial pipeline was aimed at enriching rather than causing problems in society.

The statement did not mention the amount of money demanded by the perpetrators of the attack.

White House officials said the decision belongs to the company, while not expressing whether the Colony pipeline made any payment for the hackers' group.

The company is working with private experts to assess possible damage and secure relock of the pipeline on the internet network.

The incident triggered rising domestic oil prices in the highest figures of seven years.

Ransomware is a program that blocks access to a computer system until a certain amount of money is paid. /voa