US, allies sanction Russian bulletproof hosting services for ransomware support

According to The Record, the U.S. Treasury and international partners sanctioned Media Land, a popular Russian bulletproof hosting service provider based in St. Petersburg, on Wednesday for its alleged support of ransomware gangs and other cybercriminal operations. The company furnishes hackers with access to IP addresses, servers and domains used to spread malware, form botnets and carry out ransomware attacks.

It was accused of providing services to online criminal marketplaces as well as ransomware groups such as Lockbit, BlackSuit and Play, and its services were used in several distributed denial-of-service attacks against U.S. critical infrastructure entities. The sanctions also targeted Media Land’s sister companies, Data Center Kirishi and ML Cloud, which provide other technical infrastructure to ransomware gangs. This action comes as part of coordinated measures by the U.S., the U.K. and Australia.