The Council of the European Union has imposed its first-ever sanctions against persons or entities involved in various cyber-attacks targeting European citizens, and its member states.
The directive has been issued against six individuals and three entities responsible for or involved in various cyber-attacks, out of which some publicly known are ‘WannaCry‘, ‘NotPetya‘, and ‘Operation Cloud Hopper,’ as well as an attempted cyber-attack against the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons.
Out of the six individuals sanctioned by the EU include two Chinese citizens and four Russian nationals. The companies involved in carrying out cyberattacks include an export firm based in North Korea, and technology companies from China and Russia.
The sanctions imposed include a ban on persons traveling to any EU countries and a freeze of assets on persons and entities.
Besides this, EU citizens and entities are also forbidden from doing any business or engaging in transactions with those on the sanction list.
According to the European Council, the detailed of these persons or entities are:
- Two Chinese Individuals—Gao Qiang and Zhang Shilong—and a technology firm, named Tianjin Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Development Co. Ltd, for the Operation Cloud Hopper.
The US government has also charged Shilong in 2018 for targeting over 45 companies and government agencies and stealing hundreds of gigabytes of sensitive data from its targets, but the suspect is still at large.
Operation Cloud Hopper was a series of cyber-attacks targeting information systems of multinational companies in six continents, including those located in the EU, and gaining unauthorised access to commercially sensitive data, resulting in economic loss.
images from Hacker News
Recent Comments