Evil Corp hit with new sanctions, BitPaymer ransomware charges

The Evil Corp cybercrime syndicate has been hit with new sanctions by the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia. The US also indicted one of its members for conducting BitPaymer ransomware attacks.

In 2019, the United States sanctioned seventeen individuals and seven entities linked to the Evil Corp gang, including the group’s leader, Maksim Yakubets.

Today, the US Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned an additional seven individual and two entities associated with the cybercrime operation.

In a trilateral action, the UK and Australia are also sanctioning some of the Evil Corp suspects designated by OFAC today or in its 2019 sanctions.

The sanctioned individuals are Eduard Benderskiy (Maksim’s father-in-law), Viktor Grigoryevich Yakubets (Maksim’s father), Aleksandr Viktorovich Ryzhenkov, Sergey Viktorovich Ryzhenkov, Aleksey Yevgenevich Shchetinin, Beyat Enverovich Ramazanov, and Vadim Gennadievich Pogodin.

The two sanctioned entities are Vympel-Assistance LLC and Solar-Invest LLC, which are owned by Benderskiy, the reported father-in-law of Evil Corp’s leader Maksim Yakubets.

“Eduard Benderskiy (Benderskiy), a former Spetnaz officer of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), which is designated under numerous OFAC sanctions authorities, current Russian businessman, and the father-in-law of Evil Corp’s leader Maksim Viktorovich Yakubets (Maksim), has been a key enabler of Evil Corp’s relationship with the Russian state,” alleges the U.S. Department of the Treasury announcement.

“Benderskiy was a key enabler of their relationship with the Russian Intelligence Services who, prior to 2019, tasked Evil Corp to conduct cyber attacks and espionage operations against NATO allies,” alleges a joint NCA announcement.

As part of these sanctions, the individual’s assets have been frozen and businesses in the US, UK, and Australia can no longer transact with them.

This also means that organizations that suffer ransomware attacks by Evil Corp will no longer be able to make ransom payments without approval by OFAC or risk facing sanction violations.

Evil Corp member identified and indicted

The United States also unsealed an indictment today against suspected Evil Corp member Aleksandr Ryzhenkov for conducting ransomware attacks on multiple victims in the US.

Ryzhenkov is charged with utilizing the BitPaymer ransomware in multiple attacks against companies in the United States. BitPaymer is the first ransomware encryptor…