Collaborate Disseminate
The former Treasury Secretary’s Liberty Strategic Capital has made a string of investments in cybersecurity businesses.
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The U.S. Treasury Department on Monday leveled sanctions at another batch of current and former Ukrainian government officials it says are affiliated with a 2020 election influence campaign. Treasury said all four men have publicly associated themselves with Andrii Derkach, a previously sanctioned Ukrainian parliament member and suspected Russian agent who has met with President Donald Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani as part of his bid to spread misinformation about the Biden family. Of the four, Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko and Andriy Telizhenko are former Ukrainian government officials, while Oleksandr Dubinsky currently sits in parliament. Treasury says they are part of Derkach’s inner circle and have coordinated to spread fraudulent, unproven claims. In total, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed sanctions on Monday on seven individuals and four “media front companies” associated with the disinformation campaign. The other three men are also Derkach supporters, Treasury said. In a sign […]
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Two key Senate Democrats extensively questioned the U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday about its reported data breach, a subject it has been less forthcoming about than the other federal agencies swept into the compromise of SolarWinds software. The senators, Sherrod Brown of Ohio and Ron Wyden of Oregon, also want to know whether Treasury plans to sanction the attackers and if it has begun evaluating the overall damage to the economy of the cyber-espionage campaign, which could ripple through the private sector, too. The senators’ letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin pushes the department not only to provide information about its own breach, but also to develop a broader response that includes punishments for the hackers responsible. Cybersecurity researchers have tied them to Russia. “These media reports suggest that these attacks were comprehensive and historic and bad actors may have had access to critical U.S. government networks for many months,” […]
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A White House plan to sanction Kaspersky Lab has met resistance from senior U.S. government officials who are worried that it could set a dangerous precedent for global behavior on the internet, according to two officials familiar with the matter. The plan to sanction the Moscow-based anti-virus maker has largely been pioneered by the National Security Council, CyberScoop previously reported. A source with knowledge of the effort recently said that Treasury Department head Steve Mnuchin has “OK’d” sanctions against Kaspersky, although several of his advisers are against it. A plan to make the sanctions official has no immediate timetable. The final decision rests with the executive branch; which is home to the NSC. When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the Treasury Department said the agency “does not telegraph sanctions or comment on prospective actions.” The NSC previously declined to comment on possible Kaspersky sanctions. Some in government worry about the impact such sanctions […]
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The Trump administration announced Thursday sanctions against Russian entities for a multitude of actions, including meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the NotPetya attack and persistent attempt to break into the U.S. energy grid. The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned five entities and 19 individuals with ties to the Kremlin, including high-ranking officials in Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). “The administration is confronting and countering malign Russian cyber activity, including their attempted interference in U.S. elections, destructive cyber-attacks, and intrusions targeting critical infrastructure,” said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. “These targeted sanctions are a part of a broader effort to address the ongoing nefarious attacks emanating from Russia.” Senior administration officials say that a number of those sanctioned are responsible for attempts to breach industrial control systems tied to the U.S. energy grid. Officials say attackers conducted a “multi-stage campaign” […]
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