The Treasury Department announced Monday it is implementing sanctions on five Russian entities and three Russian individuals identified as conducting or aiding in cybercrime on behalf of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB).
The move freezes any assets the businesses and executives have in the U.S. and bans Americans from doing business with any of them.
“The entities designated today have directly contributed to improving Russia’s cyber and underwater capabilities through their work with the FSB and therefore jeopardize the safety and security of the United States and our allies,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.
The targeted firms include Digital Security, the Kvant Scientific Research Institute and Divetechnoservices. Two others, ERPScan and Embedi, are “owned or controlled” by Digital Security.
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The three newly sanctioned Russian men are employees of Divetechnoservices. Vladimir Yakovlevich Kaganskiy owned the company as of December, while the other two — Oleg Sergeyevich Chirikov and Aleksandr Lvovich Tribun — served in senior leadership roles.
In addition to aiding the FSB, one firm, Kvant, is also “owned or controlled” by the Russian agency, according to the Treasury Department.
From the press release:
Examples of Russia’s malign and destabilizing cyber activities include the destructive NotPetya cyber-attack; cyber intrusions against the U.S. energy grid to potentially enable future offensive operations; and global compromises of network infrastructure devices, including routers and switches, also to potentially enable disruptive cyber-attacks. Today’s action also targets the Russian government’s underwater capabilities. Russia has been active in tracking undersea communication cables, which carry the bulk of the world’s telecommunications data.
Treasury Sanctions Russian Federal Security Service Enablers (press release)
U.S. sanctions Russian businesses, executives over cyberattacks (Politico)