US, UK Sanction Russian Cybercrime Group Members
The U.S. and the U.K. sanctioned seven members of the Russia-based cybercrime gang Trickbot, the countries announced Feb 9. The restrictions were simultaneously imposed by both countries in the "first wave of new coordinated action against international cyber crime," the U.K.'s Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation said. The designations target Mikhail Iskritskiy, Valentin Karyagin, Vitaliy Kovalev, Maksim Mikhailov, Dmitry Pleshevskiy, Valery Sedletski and Ivan Vakhromeyev.
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Trickbot, first identified in 2016 by security researchers, was an online banking Trojan virus called Dyre operated by individuals based in Moscow to steal financial data. The Trickbot viruses infected millions of computers worldwide, the U.S. Treasury Department said. Current members of the Trickbot Group are associated with Russian Intelligence Services.
Brian Nelson, Treasury's undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said "international cooperation is key to addressing Russian cybercrime.” Through the sanctions, "we are sending a clear signal to them and others involved in ransomware that they will be held to account," U.K. Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.