The U.S. Department of Treasury issued sanctions against five Russian entities and three Russian individuals last week for engaging in “significant malicious cyber-enabled activities.”
The Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued sanctions against one entity that is controlled by Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and two entities that provided material and technology support to the FSB. Additional entities and individuals have been sanctioned for being owned or operated by the FSB, or for acting on behalf of or assisting Russia’s principal security agency.
U.S. Secretary of Treasury Steven Mnuchin said the United States has engaged in an effort to counter “malicious actors working at the behest of the Russian Federation and its military and intelligence units to increase Russia’s offensive cyber capabilities.”
Sanctions issued on June 11 were in response to cyber intrusions to the U.S. energy grid that could potentially be used for future attacks, global compromises of network infrastructure devices like routers and switches, and additional disruptive cyber attacks around the world.
“The entities designated today have directly contributed to improving Russia’s cyber and underwater capabilities through their work with the FSB and therefore jeopardize the safety and security of the United States and our allies,” Mnuchin said. “The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any entity or individual working at the direction of the FSB whose work threatens the United States and will continue to utilize our sanctions authorities, including those provided under (the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act), to counter the constantly evolving threats emanating from Russia.”
Digital Security, which worked on a project that enhanced the ability of Russia intelligence services to launch cyber attacks, was among the five entities sanctioned by the Treasury Department. ERPScan and Embedi were sanctioned for being owned or controlled by Digital Security. Kvant Scientific Research Institute was sanctioned for being owned or controlled by the FSB. Divetechnoservices was sanctioned for providing material and technological support to FSB.
Aleksandr Lvovich Tribun, Oleg Sergeyevich Chirikov, and Vladimir Yakovlevich Kaganskiy were sanctioned for acting on behalf of Divetechnoservices.