U.S. Sanctions Russian Individuals and Companies After Intelligence Attacks

On Monday, three Russian individuals and five companies were sanctioned after confirming that they had worked on cyber-attacks against the U.S. and its allies. They had worked with Moscow’s military and intelligence services.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin held a press conference where he explained in detail the recent procedures. He stated:

The United States is engaged in an ongoing effort to counter malicious actors working at the behest of the Russian Federation and its military and intelligence units to increase Russia’s offensive cyber capabilities. The entities designated today have directly contributed to improving Russia’s cyber and underwater capabilities through their work with the [Russia’s Federal Security Service] and therefore jeopardize the safety and security of the United States and our allies”

One of the confirmed attacks was the NotPetya attack in 2017, which was mostly targeted towards Ukraine, but spread towards several other countries, including the U.S. and Spain. The virus mainly caused data to be deleted, and for users to be unable to recover data over long periods of time. The White House had previously identified Russia as the source for the virus, highlighting that it was another step in the years-long constant Russia-Ukraine conflict. It cost billions of dollars in damage for all governments involved.

According to Mnuchin, the attacks also confirmed Russia’s use of undersea communication cables in order to gather significant amounts of data from many parts of the world. The five companies are Digital Security, ERPScan, Embedi, Kvant Scientific Research Institute, and Divetechnoservices. The three individuals involved had direct relations with the last company, Divetechnoservices.

The previous U.S. administration sanctioned Moscow’s Federal Security Service, due to alleged harassment to American officials and direct involvement in the 2016 elections through cyber operations. The intelligence services were also sanctioned earlier this year after the Trump administration accused Moscow of the cyber attacks, which have allegedly occurred throughout the last two years. The attacks targeted the U.S. power grid.

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