EU Strengthens Sanctions Against Russian Hackers

The European Council on Tuesday introduced a new sanctions framework to target Russian nationals and organizations engaged in malicious cyber activities such as election misinformation and disruptive cyberattacks.

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The framework seeks to address hybrid threats tied to Russia including activities impacting the electoral process such as influence operations, sabotage attacks targeting critical infrastructure, and other malicious cyber activities that may undermine “the fundamental values of the European Union and its member states.”

Russian individuals and entities sanctioned for their role in such activities will be subjected to asset freezes and will be barred from entering trading bloc countries. European citizens will also be restricted from making any financial transactions to the targeted entities.

“The European Union and its Member States strongly condemn Russia’s intensifying campaign of hybrid activities against the EU, its Member States and partners,” said Joseph Borrell, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs Russia’s activities illustrate the country’s “reckless and irresponsible behavior,” he added.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has pledged more than 88 billion euros as humanitarian and military support to Ukraine.

A September report from the European Union Agency for Cybersecurity recorded a “notable escalation” in cyberattacks over the 12 months ending in June, attributing the surge to the geopolitical tensions connected to Russia’s ongoing war (see: ENISA Warns About Hacktivist, Ransomware Crossover).

The EU sanctioned four Russian domestic intelligence agency hackers including two military officers in June for their role in “hack and leak” operations against Western governments (see: European Union Sanctions Russian State Hackers).

Western governments have been increasingly relying on sanctions to tackle Russian cybercriminals as Moscow maintains its policy of not extraditing its citizens to face criminal charges in foreign courts.

Early this month, the U.K., U.S. and Australia sanctioned seven individuals for their membership Evil Corp, a cybercrime group with links to the Russian Federal Security Service. In September, the U.S. sanctioned the Russian state-funded media outlet RT for secretly orchestrating information operations and a fundraising campaign to provide support and military equipment to Russian units in Ukraine (see: US Sanctions Russian Media for Secretly Funding Ukraine War).

The EU hopes that the promise of additional sanctions “will create preventative and deterrent effects,” said Stefan Soesanto, senior cyber defense researcher at the ETH Zurich. “Depending on how broad the hybrid warfare definition will be applied, some big Russian tech companies could easily land on that list,” he told Information Security Media Group.