First-ever EU cyber sanctions hit Russian, Chinese, N Koreans

Brussels, July 31

The European Union has imposed its first-ever sanctions over cyber attacks, slapping them on alleged Russian military agents, Chinese cyber spies and organisations, including a North Korean firm.

The six people and three groups hit with sanctions include Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency. The EU headquarters blamed them in a statement for the 2017 “WannaCry” ransomware and “NotPetya” malware attacks and the “Cloud Hopper” cyberespionage campaign.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Thursday the sanctions “are a travel ban and asset freeze to natural persons and an asset freeze to entities or bodies. It is also prohibited to directly or indirectly make funds available to listed individuals and entities or bodies.” Four Russians identified as GRU members were accused of trying to hack the Wi-Fi network of the Netherlands-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, or OPCW, which has probed the use of chemical weapons in Syria. The 2018 attack was foiled by the Dutch authorities. The GRU was also sanctioned for NotPetya, which targeted companies that do business with Ukraine and caused billions of dollars in damage globally, and cyberattacks on Ukraine’s power grid in 2015 and 2016. AP