Europe and the United States impose sanctions against hackers working for Russian special services and stealing cryptocurrency

According to publications on the official website of the U.S. Treasury Department and the British government, the U.S. and British authorities have imposed sanctions on the Russian hacker group Trickbot, which stole more than $ 720 million in cryptocurrency. Representatives of the UK’s National Cyber Security Center believe that key members of the group are receiving tasks from Russian special services.

The sanctions list includes 7 Russian citizens who are part of the Trickbot team: Vitaly Kovalev (also known by the pseudonyms Bentley and Ben), Maxim Mikhailov (Baget), Valentin Karyagin (Globus), Mikhail Iskritsky (Tropa), Dmitry Pleshevsky (Iseldor), Ivan Vakhromeev (Mushroom) and Valery Sedletsky (Strix). According to US authorities, the attackers are targeting «critical infrastructures» in America and Britain. According to British intelligence, the Trickbot team may consist of members of the EvilCorp criminal organization and the developers of the Ryuk ransomware.

According to Chainalysis analysts, Trickbot hackers have stolen about $ 724 million in cryptocurrency since its inception. The scale of crypto thefts makes Trickbot the second largest hacker group in the crypto market (after the North Korean Lazarus Group).

As for the Lazarus Group hackers, they are suspected of helping the North Korean government develop weapons of mass destruction. Rumor has it that the lion’s share of the nuclear program’s funding is made up of stolen cryptocurrency. Last year, Lazarus was also accused of hacking Israeli and Japanese crypto exchanges.