The US government has imposed sanctions on crypto wallets believed to belong to two Russian nationals linked to the LockBit ransomware group.
In a statement, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it has sanctioned several Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) wallets linked to the group.
According to a press release, the wallets of Ivan Gennadievich Kondratiev and Artur Sungatov will be frozen in the United States after LockBit attacked the US broker-dealer of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), affecting the settlement of billions of dollars in assets .
“OFAC’s investigation determined that LockBit is responsible for the ransomware attack on ICBC, which occurred on November 9, 2023. The ransomware attack disrupted ICBC’s U.S. broker-dealer, impacting the settlement of more than $ 9 billion in assets backed by government bonds.
The ransomware attack caused a blackout of ICBC’s computer systems, causing a loss of email and communications. ICBC’s inability to access its systems resulted in securities being delivered for settlement without funds being available to support the transactions.”
LockBit, which first appeared in 2019, uses the ransom-as-a-service model, where it licenses its malware to cybercriminals, who then give them a cut of the ransom paid by victims, it said press release.
“LockBit is known for its double extortion tactics, where cybercriminals exfiltrate massive amounts of data from their victims before encrypting the victim’s computer systems and demanding ransoms. LockBit was the most used ransomware variant worldwide in 2022 and is still prolific.”
As stated by Deputy Secretary of Finance Wally Adeyemo, according to the press release:
“The United States will not tolerate attempts to extort and steal from our citizens and institutions. We will continue our government approach to defending against malicious cyber activity, and will use all available tools to hold accountable the actors who enable these threats.”
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Featured image: Shutterstock/Selin Serhii