The United States, the UK and Australia jointly imposed sanctions on the Russian cyber company Zservers for its role in ransomware attacks, the Trump administration announced Tuesday, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.
"Russia continues to offer safe harbor for cybercriminals where groups are free to launch and support ransomware attacks against the United States and its allies and partners," State Department's spokesperson Tammy Bruce said in a statement. "We will continue to stand with our partners to disrupt ransomware actors that threaten our economies and critical infrastructure," she added.
Zservers, a bulletproof hosting (BPH) services provider, supported the cybercrime group LockBit in perpetrating mass ransomware attacks.
Tuesday's sanctions also targeted two Russian nationals serving as Zservers operators, (Alexander Igorevich Mishin and Aleksandr Sergeyevich Bolshakov) for their roles in supporting LockBit ransomware attacks. As a BPH service provider, Zservers provided cybercriminals access to specialized servers and other computer infrastructure designed to resist law enforcement action, Bruce said.
Financial institutions or other persons that do business with Zservers could also be exposed to sanctions. In addition to Mishin and Bolshakov, the U.K. named four other Zservers employees in its action against the company.
"Putin has built a corrupt mafia statedriven by greed and ruthlessness," U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said in a separate statement. "It is no surprise that the most unscrupulous extortionists and cyber-criminals run rampant from within his borders. This government will continue to work with partners to constrain the Kremlin and the impact of Russia's lawless cyber underworld," he concluded.
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