The post US, UK Sanction Russian Zservers Over LockBit Ransomware appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Governmental agencies in the U.S., UK and Australia have jointly placed sanctions on Zservers, a Russia-based provider of hosting services used by the notorious LockBit group and other ransomware attackers. The U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, has placed Zservers and six of its employees on the Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) list, blocking any U.S.-based assets they may own and also prohibiting US-based entities from conducting business with them. The UK’s Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office has also imposed sanctions on XHOST Internet Solutions LP, the UK-based front company for Zservers, which allegedly advertises itself to cybercriminals as a bulletproof hosting, or BPH, provider. As a BPH provider, Zservers is reported to host hackers, misinformation, child exploitation material,  spam and hate speech, with Zservers and similar companies selling criminals tools which can hide their locations, activities and identities. A report by Chainalysis shows that “multiple different ransomware affiliates” sent funds to Zservers, with one of these affiliates including LockBit, which was broken up last February after using ransomware attacks to extract $120 million in Bitcoin from victims. Chainanalysis did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Decrypt. In fact, it was a 2022 search of a known LockBit affiliate that led to Zservers. It was then that Canadian authorities discovered a laptop running a virtual machine connected to a Zservers IP address. Chainalysis data also reveals that the Zservers cashed out funds at the already OFAC-sanctioned Garantex exchange, as well as at various other KYC-free exchanges. In total, Zservers’ interactions with the ransomware-linked actors accounted for $5.2 million in on-chain activity, according to Chainalysis. The US and UK governments have welcomed the news of sanctions against Zservers as a blow against international ransomware gangs, which according to the FATF “almost exclusively” request payment in crypto. “Today’s…

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Filed under: News - @ February 13, 2025 2:23 am