White House racing to finalize strategy to deter ransomware attacks By: CNN By Natasha Bertrand, CNN (CNN) -- The White House is racing to finalize a government-wide strategy on how to respond to ransomware attacks that will deter companies from paying out ransoms to cybercriminals as the Biden administration grapples with yet another major attack on a US firm by criminal actors believed to be based in Russia. For months, the National Security Council has been studying how to stop debilitating attacks on critical infrastructure entities and weighing what authorities the government can invoke to quickly respond to and mitigate them, according to officials and experts involved in the discussions.