US, UK and Australia impose restrictions on Russian cyber group

The United States, the United Kingdom and Australia have imposed sanctions on the Russian company Zservers. The company supported the LockBit hacking group in carrying out cyberattacks with the aim of extorting money. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the US Treasury and the UK government.

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Zservers reportedly provides secure hosting services. It is used by cybercriminals to avoid detection by law enforcement. One of Zservers’ clients was the hacker group LockBit, one of the most active ransomware operators on the Internet.

LockBit's victims included the tire company Continental, the Boeing Corporation, and the Subway restaurant chain. Last summer, one of LockBit's alleged accomplices was detained in Ukraine.

It is noted that Zservers knowingly provided the infrastructure for conducting cyberattacks, including IP addresses for coordinating and launching ransomware attacks.

The full list of those sanctioned today:

• ZSERVERS;
• XHOST Internet Solutions LP;
• Alexander Bolshakov (employee);
• Oleksandr Mishin (employee);
• Ilya Sidorov (employee);
• Dmitry Bolshakov (employee);
• Igor Odintsov (employee);
• Vladimir Ananiev (employee).

The US sanctions include asset freezes and transaction bans. In particular, banks and other financial institutions also risk secondary sanctions if they continue to cooperate with sanctioned individuals. It is also interesting that these are the first sanctions against the Russian Federation adopted in the US during Donald Trump's second presidential term.

What preceded

LockBit is a Russian extortion group that was discovered back in 2019. In 2023, the US Department of Justice indicted Russian Ruslan Astamirov, who was part of the LockBit hacker group.

Also, a number of law enforcement agencies in the US, Britain, and Europol previously conducted an operation against cybercriminals with Lockbit.

And later it became known that the Security Service of Ukraine was also involved in exposing Russian hackers.

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