Russia’s Zservers sanctioned by US, UK, and Australia for serving crypto ransomware LockBit

Three countries have sanctioned the Russia-based accommodation service for having offered services to the famous cryptocurrency ransomware gangs.

A February. 11 press release Of the Office of Control of Foreign Assets of the US Treasury, the Australian Foreign Foreign and Trade Ministry, and the Office of Foreign Affairs, Commonwealth & Development in the United Kingdom, revealed joint repression, sanctioning the supplier of ZERSERVERS LABORLE LABORTH SERVICES AND HIS STOCK STOCK based in the United Kingdom, XHOST Internet Solutions LP.

The sanctions include asset frost, travel prohibitions and the restrictions that have reduced the ZERSSERS in the global financial system. This means that all property or funds linked to them in sanctioned courts are blocked, and financial institutions risk sanctions if they engage with them.

For providers of accommodation services not on the current and the test of bullets offering an infrastructure designed to protect cybercriminals from the police by masking identities, places and online activities. According to Bradley T. Smith, under-secretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, bad players rely on these services to orchestrate attacks against “American and international critical infrastructure”.

This Decision Black Lists Zervers Administrators Alexander Igorevich Mishin and Aleksandr Sergeyevich Bolshakov, as well as four other people related to lockbit operations, by cutting them from global financial systems and imposing travel prohibitions.

Zervers served customers beyond lockbit

The authorities say that Mishin and Bolshakov, as an administrators of Zervers, provided accommodation to the cybercriminals test and an infrastructure reassigned to locking affiliates to help them escape detection. Mishin has also directed cryptocurrency transactions linked to Ransomware operationsIncluding payments for Zervers services used by several ransomware groups.

According to a separate report From the Chainalysis blockchain analysis company, the OFAC has added a cryptographic portfolio linked to Mishin and three other portfolios linked to Zervers to its specially designated national list.

Zervers was addressed to a large clientele in the world of cybercrime, added the report. Chainalysis traced at least $ 5.2 million in chain activity linked to Zervers, revealing that several ransomware affiliates beyond lockbit had sent funds to the service.

The analysis chain also noted that the Zervers had cashed by the Russian Russian Guarantor and other high-risk platforms with little or no KYC application.

As before covered By crypto.News, the Lockbit Ransomware Group, spotted for the first time in 2019, was the source of some of the largest cases of hacks and Crypto extortion, including attacks on Bangkok Airways, Accenture and Government Services Canadians.

In February 2024, a global coalition of application of the law – including the FBI, the NCA, the Europol and others – the Lockbit Operational Network by entering its command and control systems. In December of the same year, the United States Ministry of Justice charge A Russian national for having worked as a developer for the Ransomware group.