The Council of the European Union announced sanctions on three companies and two individuals for cyberattacks that targeted devices and critical infrastructure. One Chinese firm provided support that led to more than 65,000 devices being hacked across six EU states.
KEY FACTS
- Incident Sanctions imposed for cyberattacks against EU member states
- Entities Two Chinese companies and one Iranian company sanctioned
- Scope Over 65,000 devices affected in six EU states
- Measures Asset freeze and travel ban for listed persons
A press release by the European Council notes an asset freeze for the listed entities and a travel ban for natural persons, and forbids EU citizens and companies from making funds or economic resources available to them.
The Council named Integrity Technology Group and Anxun Information Technology as the two Chinese companies and Emennet Pasargad as the Iranian company. Two co founders of Anxun were added to the sanctions list.
Integrity Technology Group is reported to have provided technical and material support in 2022 and 2023 that led to the compromise of more than 65,000 devices. The company has previously been linked to a large botnet campaign and faced prior sanctions.
Anxun Information Technology was described as offering hacker for hire services and carrying out attacks against critical infrastructure. The company suffered a data leak in February 2024 that exposed internal operations and offensive tools.
Emennet Pasargad has been attributed influence campaigns and the compromise of an SMS service in Sweden. The actor also hijacked advertising billboards to spread misinformation during the 2024 Paris Olympics and offered stolen subscriber data for sale in early 2023.
WHY IT MATTERS
Sanctions aim to disrupt services and personnel that enable large scale cyber campaigns and influence operations. The measures also signal coordinated action by the EU to protect critical infrastructure and deter future attacks.