The United States has joined Australia and the United Kingdom in targeting the Russian-based virtual private network (VPN) provider “Zet Servers“ (Zservers) for its role in supporting hacking attacks by the Lockbit group, the US Treasury Department announced today, quoted by Reuters, writes BTA.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control of the US Treasury Department also named two Russian nationals who it said were key administrators of “Zservers“, the statement added.
“Ransomware (a type of hacking attack) and other cybercriminals rely on third-party network service providers like “Zservers“ to carry out their attacks against US and international critical infrastructure,“ said Bradley Smith, acting assistant secretary of the Treasury for counterterrorism and financial intelligence.
The US Department of Justice specified that The cybercrime group that carried out the hacker attacks received payments of $16 million from over a thousand individuals and legal entities.
As part of an international operation against the group, whose victims include a children's hospital, medical facilities and educational institutions, 33-year-old Roman Berezhnoy and 39-year-old Egor Nikolaevich Glebov were arrested, the ministry said in a statement.
The UK, for its part, announced today that it had imposed sanctions on the group “Zet Servers“ and six of its members for helping to carry out “devastating“ hacker attacks worldwide.
The measures will freeze the assets of “Zet Servers“, its puppet group in the UK “Exhost Internet Solutions LP“ (XHOST Internet Solutions LP) and its six employees, and they have also been banned from travelling to the UK.
The notorious cybercrime group “Lockbit“ is known to use “Zet Servers“ to carry out cybercrime, the UK has said.
“(Russian President Vladimir) Putin has built a corrupt mafia state driven by greed and ruthlessness,“ said British Foreign Secretary David Lammy. “It is not surprising that the most ruthless extortionists and cybercriminals are rampant within its borders,“ he added.