THELOGICALINDIAN - The US Treasurys Office of Foreign Assets Control OFAC has taken activity adjoin two Iranian ransomware facilitators The accomplishments includepublishing the perps cryptocurrency wallet addresses and admonishing the cryptocurrency and banking communities that anyone transacting with the accused could be accountable to accessory sanctions
Involvement in the SamSam Ransomware Attacks
The OFAC declared that the two “Iran-based individuals,” are Ali Khorashadizadeh and Mohammad Ghorbaniyan. According to a U.S Treasury columnist absolution today they helped barter Bitcoin bribe payments, acquired by “Iranian awful cyber actors” complex in the SamSam ransomware scheme, into Iranian rial.
Khorashadizadeh and Ghorbaniyan are appointed for:
OFAC has articular and appear the two wallet addresses associated with the “facilitators.” The cryptocurrency wallet addresses candy about 6,000-7,000 Bitcoin (BTC) [coin_price] affairs beyond 40 cryptocurrency exchanges. Even at today’s Bitcoin price, this would agree to a amount of over $25 million.
The U.S Department of Justice has additionally accusable two actors for infecting over 200 networks with SamSam ransomware in the U.S, UK, and Canada back 2015. One hospital in Indiana absent all its IT networks during storms, arch them to pay the bribe to assure patients.
The account bound sparked a chat on amusing media.
First Publishing of Wallet Addresses
OFAC says that although it usually shares “identifiers” with appointed people:
The operators acquainted or award the appear wallet addresses are appropriate to accede with OFAC obligations behindhand of whether affairs are conducted in authorization or agenda currency:
Any acreage or banking “interests” of the individuals are now accountable to OFAC sanctions and “U.S. bodies about are banned from ambidextrous with them.”
The Treasury and OFAC accomplishments today are allotment of a added annular of sanctions and “U.S bread-and-butter pressure” targeting Iran “designed to edgeless the ample spectrum of the Iranian regime’s antagonistic activities and bulldoze the administration to change its behavior.”
Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Sigal Mandelker warns:
What are your thoughts on the new sanctions? Let us apperceive in the comments below.
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