Russians sanctioned for pervasive cyber crimes

Australia has imposed financial sanctions and travel bans on three Russian citizens for their involvement in the Evil Corp cybercrime group striking critical infrastructure, governments, industry and the community.

Evil Corp is one of the most prolific and longest running cybercrime groups operating for more than a decade.

Evil Corp has been responsible for significant cyber incidents, including ransomware attacks across Europe, the United Kingdom and the United States, resulting in millions of dollars of losses and disruptions to critical health systems, national infrastructure and government sectors.

The sanctions make it a criminal offence to provide assets to Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets, Igor Olegovich Turashev and Aleksandr Viktorovich Ryzhenkov or to use or deal with their assets. The sanctions also ban them from entering Australia.

The Minister for Cyber Security, the Hon Tony Burke said: “We have been very clear – under our government Australia is hardening its defences and ensuring there are consequences for people who target our citizens and businesses.

“These sanctions are another example of our commitment to working with our international partners to shut down the criminal organisations that have built a business model on ransomware.”

The sanctions are part of a coordinated effort with the United Kingdom and the United States to deter and respond to malicious cyber activity.

This is the third use of Australia’s autonomous cyber sanctions framework, and part of ongoing coordinated international law enforcement against cybercrime.

The Australian Government’s longstanding policy is to discourage businesses and individuals from paying ransoms or extortion claims to cyber criminals.

If you are asked to pay a ransom you should notify the Australian Signals Directorate by either: calling the Australian Cyber Security Hotline on 1300 CYBER1 (1300 292 371); or making a report at https://www.cyber.gov.au/report.

Australian businesses can help protect themselves from ransomware by backing up their files and work; and ensuring their staff know to never visit suspicious websites, open emails from unknown sources or click on suspicious links.

Picture: Tony Burke