Category Archives: Treasury Department

FinCEN warns ransomware proceeds could be part of Russia sanctions evasion

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As banks and other financial institutions work to honor the U.S. sanctions against Russia and monitor for efforts to evade them, the feds are warning that ransomware proceeds could be in the mix. The Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) issued guidance this week on the responsibility that private institutions have for detecting “sanctions evasion activity” and reporting it under the Bank Secrecy Act and other laws. The alert comes as federal lawmakers have expressed concern about the use of crypto to evade sanctions, and Bloomberg is reporting that the Biden administration is preparing an executive order on the topic this week. At least one big player in the cryptocurrency industry, the trading platform Coinbase, already has expressed a commitment to supporting sanctions from the U.S. and other nations looking to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. Coinbase said it had blocked 25,000 accounts linked to Russian people […]

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Biden administration seeks money to bolster Ukraine war-related cybersecurity at home, abroad

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The Biden administration is requesting additional funds from Congress to help Ukraine with its digital defenses, strengthen cybersecurity in Europe and enhance U.S. capabilities to respond to the fallout from the Russian invasion. The overall fiscal 2022 supplemental request, sent to Capitol Hill this week, seeks $10 billion in Ukraine-related needs and $22.5 billion in funding related to COVID-19. Among the bigger pots of cybersecurity-focused funding the administration is requesting is $1.25 billion for the Defense Department to assist Ukraine with support on “operational surges across multiple national defense components, including accelerated cyber capabilities, weapons systems upgrades, increased intelligence support, and classified programs.” A $1.75 billion request for the State Department to provide economic aid to Ukraine includes support for “continuity of government” and resilience work, including cybersecurity and efforts to counter disinformation. Other funds sought for Ukraine assistance include Department of Energy money to evaluate cybersecurity needs for connecting Ukraine’s […]

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Treasury Department sanctions alleged Russian cyber-espionage, disinformation sources

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The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Russian oligarchs and organizations for their role in spreading disinformation and supporting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, among them a news agency the Treasury Department says has ties to a Russian cyber-espionage and offensive unit. The sanctions targeted nine employees of InfoRos, a nominal news agency primarily run by the GRU, which controls the Russian military intelligence service and operates its own special forces units. According to the Treasury Department, the GRU’s 72nd Main Intelligence Information Center, a unit within Russia’s Information Operations Troops, functions as Russia’s “military force for conducting cyber espionage, influence, and offensive cyber operations” and is InfoRos’ operator. In a news release, the Treasury Department said InfoRos is a network of more than 1,000 websites which “spread false conspiracy narratives and disinformation promoted by GRU officials.” For example, in early December, 2021, Treasury officials said one Ukraine-based InfoRos […]

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IRS announces it will stop use of facial recognition for identity verification

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The Internal Revenue Service will transition away from using a third-party authentication service that deploys facial recognition technology in order to verify new online accounts, the agency announced Monday. The transition will take place “over the coming weeks in order to prevent larger disruptions to taxpayers during filing season,” an IRS news release states. The pullback of the plan comes in response to growing concerns from both advocates and lawmakers that the agency’s decision to put the biometric data of millions of Americans into the private sector’s hands could pose enormous privacy and security risks. The IRS said it is working on developing an authentication process that does not involve facial recognition and will continue to collaborate with government partners to develop new authentication methods to protect taxpayer data. “The IRS takes taxpayer privacy and security seriously, and we understand the concerns that have been raised,” said IRS Commissioner Charles […]

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State Department offers $10M for information on Iranian election interference

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The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information on two Iranian hackers who allegedly participated in state-sponsored cyber operations designed to interfere with the 2020 U.S. presidential election. The two individuals, Seyyed Mohammad Hosein Musa Kazemi, 24, and Sajjad Kashian, 27, were charged with computer fraud, voter intimidation and transmission of interstate threats according to a federal indictment unsealed in November. The activity took place between August 2020 and November 2020. The State Department is offering the reward under its “Rewards for Justice” program, which has posted equal bounties for information about ransomware groups DarkSide and REvil. The indictment of the Iranians painted a picture of an extensive operation aimed at fomenting partisan divides ahead of the 2020 election. The campaign included allegedly sending threatening emails to Florida Democrats aimed at intimidating them into voting for Trump, while posing as the right-wing nationalist group Proud Boys. U.S. […]

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Treasury sanctions Ukrainian officials over operations for Russian FSB

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The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sanctioned four current and former Ukrainian government officials for allegedly supporting Russian influence operations to destabilize Ukraine, including one who gathered information on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, a frequent target of Kremlin cyberattacks. Taras Kozak and Oleh Voloshyn — two active members of parliament — acted at the behest of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Treasury said, as did former Ukrainian officials Vladimir Sivkovich and Volodymyr Oliynyk. “In 2021, Oliynyk worked at the direction of the FSB to gather information about Ukrainian critical infrastructure,” the department explained. “As in previous Russian incursions into Ukraine, repeated cyber operations against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure are part of Russia’s hybrid tactics to threaten Ukraine.” Ukrainian officials are already in the midst of blaming Russia for cyberattacks last week on its government agencies. While Treasury delivered the sanctions one day after President Joe Biden predicted Russia would invade Ukraine, […]

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Ransomware group ‘Hades’ claims more victims as investigators seek answers

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A ransomware group that targets billion-dollar companies — but that has stubbornly defied attribution consensus among cybersecurity researchers — has claimed at least seven victims since its discovery late last year. What’s more, it has taken additional steps in an apparent bid to baffle investigators who have tried to pin down who, exactly, the operators are, according to Accenture Security research released Tuesday. The update on the operators of the self-proclaimed Hades ransomware variant adds to its mystery as much as it subtracts from it. Accenture said it “is not yet able to confidently make attribution claims,” though other researchers have variously described Hades as a new group, suggested  it is connected to a wel known Russian ransomware gang, or linked the Hades activity to a Chinese nation-state hacking outfit thought to be behind this year’s Microsoft Exchange Server attack. What Accenture says it knows is this: First, the Hades […]

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Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB

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KrebsOnSecurity recently had occasion to contact the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), the Russian equivalent of the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). In the process of doing so, I encountered a small snag: The FSB’s website said in order to contact them securely, I needed to download and install an encryption and virtual private networking (VPN) appliance that is flagged by at least 20 antivirus products as malware.

The reason I contacted the FSB — one of the successor agencies to the Russian KGB — ironically enough had to do with security concerns raised about the FSB’s own preferred method of being contacted. Continue reading Adventures in Contacting the Russian FSB→

Government, industry scramble to prioritize ransomware amid fallout from pipeline, JBS breaches

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Three weeks ago, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — the most powerful business lobby in the country — called on the federal government to take several steps to combat ransomware. This week, the White House’s deputy national security adviser penned a letter to industry … urging them to take several steps to combat ransomware. Those are two of the latest moves in a long dance between the feds and private sector over cybersecurity, with a tempo that has hastened considerably since the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack. Even as both sides say the respective calls for action on ransomware in the oft-hailed “public-private partnership” are well-received, they’re redoubling their messages to each other. As the ransomware challenge looms increasingly large and has proven difficult to wrestle, two of the largest players are trying to find their footing. “While businesses need to do what they can to enhance their security, the government […]

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U.S. government accuses Russian companies of recruiting spies, hacking for Moscow

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The Biden Administration took a sideswipe at the Russian government’s network of companies it allegedly relies on to conduct intelligence and military hacking Thursday — part of a broader effort to beat back Russian government hacking and information operations targeting Americans, the U.S. private sector and the federal government. In one of the most striking actions the Biden administration took Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Positive Technologies, a cybersecurity firm headquartered in Moscow. According to the Treasury Department, Positive Technologies may appear to be a regular IT firm, but it actually supports Russian government clients, including the Federal Security Service. The firm also “hosts large-scale conventions that are used as recruiting events for the FSB and GRU,” the Treasury Department said, referring to the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU). U.S. intelligence documents show that the company has gone even further at times and has […]

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