The US Office of Foreign Assets Control reported on Thursday that, in cooperation with the United Kingdom, it has sanctioned eleven individuals who are part of the Russian hackers group Trickbot. The group has been linked to the Russian intelligence services.
In another action, of which no further details were given, the US Department of Justice charged nine other individuals in relation to the schemes of the Trickbot program and the Conti kidnapping program. Seven of them are also on the list of those sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control.
Those sanctioned today include administrators, managers, developers and coders who have materially contributed to the Trickbot program in its operations, a hackers group that has direct ties to Russian intelligence agencies and has attacked the US government and American companies.
The sanctions against the members of Trickshot come after the US and the UK announced a similar decision against members of the hackers group in February.
Trickbot was first identified in 2016 by security researchers as a Trojan virus that evolved from Dyre, an online banking Trojan that was being operated by Moscow-based individuals. The virus targeted non-Russian companies and organisations.
Dyre and Trickbot were developed and operated by a group of Russian cybercriminals to steal financial data. The Trickbot viruses infected millions of computers around the world, including those of US companies and individuals. The current members of the Trickbot Group have links with the Russian intelligence services.