E. U. Sanctions 3 Russian Citizens for Cyber Attacks Targeting Estonia’s Important Ministers

Jan 28, 2025Ravie LakshmananCybersecurity / Cyber Espionage

Three people have been sanctioned by the Council of the European Union for supposedly engaging in “malicious cybercrimes” against Estonia.

The three Russian citizens – Nikolay Alexandrovich Korchagin, Vitaly Shevchenko, and Yuriy Fedorovich Denisov – are soldiers of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation ( GRU) Unit 29155, it said.

According to the council’s judgement, all individuals are alleged to be responsible for cyberattacks against computer systems with the intention of gathering data from various institutions’ data systems in order to learn more about Estonia’s cyber security policy.

According to the Council,” The cyber-attacks allowed adversaries to gain unauthorised access to classified information and sensitive information stored in a number of government ministries, including Economic Affairs and Communications, Social Affairs, and Foreign Affairs,” leading to the theft of thousands of sensitive documents.

This included company secrets, health records, and other important details that compromised the protection of the damaged institutions.

Unit 29155 was by the U. S. government and its allies in a string of cyber attacks aimed at government services, financial services, transportation systems, energy, and healthcare sectors of North Atlantic Treaty Organization ( NATO ) members, the European Union, Central American, and Asian countries.

The hostile collective is believed to have targeted and slowed efforts to help Ukraine since at least the beginning of 2022. The risk activity cluster is also tracked by the security area under the names Cadet Blizzard, Ember Bear, FROZENVISTA, Nodaria, Ruinous Ursa, UAC-0056, and UNC2589.

The U.S. Department of Justice ( DoJ) charged Korchagin and Denisov for allegedly participating in a plot to wire fraud and computer intrusion against targets in Ukraine, the U.S., and 25 other NATO nations.

A total of 17 people and four institutions are subject to resource freezes and travel bans as a result of the most recent enforcement action, along with E. U. individuals and institutions ‘ ability to trade with those listed.

Last month, the Council likewise against 16 people and three institutions, including GRU Unit 29155 and its commander Andrey Vladimirovich Averyanov, that it said were concerned for” Russia’s destabilizing activities internationally”.

” Through coups, executions, attacks, and cyber attacks against other countries around the world in connection with the war in Ukraine, it has sought to create conflict and destabilise European Union places”, the Council . ” By carrying out such steps, it seeks to help and gain Russia”.

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