Cyberattacks against EU, Ukraine: sanctions target six persons affiliated with Russian intelligence

This was reported in a release by the European Council press service, seen by Ukrinform.

"The Council today approved additional restrictive measures against six persons involved in cyber-attacks affecting information systems relating to critical infrastructure, critical state functions, the storage or processing of classified information and government emergency response teams in EU member states," the report says.

As noted, the restrictive measures are being applied for the first time against cybercriminal actors who use ransomware against essential services such as health and banking.

The new listings include Ruslan Peretyatko and Andrey Korinets, members of the "Callisto group". The latter is a group of Russian military intelligence officers conducting cyber operations through sustained phishing campaigns intended to steal sensitive data in critical government functions, including defense and external affairs.

The EU also targeted Oleksandr Sklianko and Mykola Chernykh of the ‘Armageddon hacker group’, a group supported by the Federal Security Service (FSB) of the Russian Federation that carried out various cyber-attacks with a significant impact on the governments of EU member states and Ukraine, including by using phishing emails and malware campaigns.

In addition, Mikhail Tsarev and Maksim Galochkin, key players in the deployment of the malwares ‘Conti’ and ‘Trickbot’ and involved in ‘Wizard Spider’, are also sanctioned. Trickbot is a malicious spyware program, created and developed by the threat group ‘Wizard Spider’, which has conducted ransomware campaigns in a variety of sectors, including essential services such as health and banking, and is therefore responsible for significant economic damage in the European Union.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, on Monday, June 24, the EU ministers of foreign affairs adopted the 14th package of sanctions against Russia related to its war of aggression against Ukraine, which will further increase pressure on the Russian energy industry and contain measures to prevent attempts to circumvent the existing sanctions.

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