The governments of the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have sanctioned a Russian “Bulletproof” web hosting company and several of its affiliates for allegedly using ransomware attacks against American victims and critical infrastructure.
The U.S. Treasury Department announced in a statement Wednesday that it has imposed coordinated sanctions on Russia-based web host Media Land and three related companies. The sanctions also target several executives at the company, including the company's general director (also known as Yarishanda), who allegedly provided servers and troubleshooting to cybercriminals.
Officials said criminal hackers used Medialand to launch a distributed denial-of-service attack. Prolific ransomware gangs like LockBit, BlackSuit, and Play are said to have used it for their infrastructure. The Treasury Department said several of the company's employees were working with cybercriminals.
“Bulletproof” providers are web hosting and cloud companies that typically advertise their services as less susceptible or resilient to law enforcement actions, such as takedowns or legal requests, and are therefore often used by cybercriminals to host malicious infrastructure.
U.S. officials said hosting companies like Medialand help provide cybercriminals with essential services to “attack U.S. and allied businesses,” but the Treasury Department did not name the victims of the attacks.
The UK Foreign Office also announced that it had designated a UK-based company called Hypercore, which officials said was set up as a front company for Aeza Group, another Bulletproof hosting company that was sanctioned by the US in July. Britain said in its own statement that Mr. Ayeza had ties to a Kremlin disinformation organization called the Agency for Social Design.
Sanctioning companies and individuals involved in cybercrime effectively makes it illegal for citizens, residents, or people with business ties to the United States, United Kingdom, or Australia to trade or do business with the sanctioned persons.
US cybersecurity agencies CISA and the National Security Agency on Wednesday released guidance on how organizations can reduce the risks posed by bulletproof hosting providers.
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