In a joint effort, the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia have taken decisive actions against a Russian web-hosting services provider and two Russian individuals who are involved in supporting the notorious Russian ransomware syndicate known as LockBit. The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, in collaboration with its counterparts in the U.K. and Australia, has imposed sanctions on Zservers, a bulletproof hosting services provider based in Russia. This type of web-hosting service is notorious for disregarding or evading law enforcement requests. The two Russian nationals who operate Zservers have also been sanctioned for their role in assisting LockBit.
According to the Treasury Department, Zservers facilitated LockBit’s operations by providing access to specialized servers that are specifically designed to resist law enforcement interventions. LockBit ransomware attacks have resulted in illicit gains exceeding $120 million from numerous victims across the globe. Since its inception in 2019, LockBit has emerged as one of the most widely used ransomware variants worldwide and continues to pose a significant threat, as highlighted by the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Bradley T. Smith, the Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the Treasury Department, emphasized the significance of the actions taken on Tuesday, stating that they demonstrate the collective determination to disrupt all facets of this criminal ecosystem, regardless of their location, in order to safeguard national security interests.
LockBit has been implicated in high-profile cyberattacks targeting entities such as airplane manufacturer Boeing, the Industrial Commercial Bank of China in November 2023, the Royal Mail in the U.K., the National Health Service of Britain, and the international law firm Allen and Overy. Ransomware represents a costly and highly disruptive form of cybercrime, causing severe harm to local governments, court systems, hospitals, schools, and businesses. The challenge in combating such cyber threats is compounded by the fact that many criminal gangs are based in former Soviet states, beyond the jurisdiction of Western legal systems.
Tammy Bruce, a spokesperson for the State Department, underscored the significance of the sanctions announced on Tuesday, reaffirming the commitment of the United States, in collaboration with international partners, to combatting cybercrime and dismantling the networks that enable cyber offenders to target innocent citizens.
