U.S., U.K. sanction 11 members of Russian cybercrime gang

• Targeting specific individuals also makes it difficult for them to simply move their operations to another entity to avoid sanctions.

Details: The 11 individuals sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department and the U.K. Foreign Office played roles ranging from top administrator to lowly malware developer or coder, per the Treasury Department. Some of these people were also recruiters for the gangs.

• The U.K.'s National Crime Agency estimates that the sanctioned individuals were responsible for extorting at least $180 million from victims worldwide.
• The sanctions build on actions the U.S. and U.K. took in February against seven other Trickbot members.

Of note: The Department of Justice will also unseal indictments against nine individuals connected to Trickbot, including seven members who were sanctioned Thursday.

The big picture: Both Trickbot and Conti are known to have targeted U.S. critical infrastructure in recent years.

• The U.S. believes that Trickbot has connections to Russia's intelligence services and that the group targeted several major U.S. health care providers at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

• Conti has also targeted a wide swath of U.S. healthcare and first responder networks, per a 2021 FBI advisory. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI estimated last year that Conti had targeted more than 400 U.S. and international organizations.

Yes, but: Ransomware gangs have been getting better at obscuring their identities, and it can be difficult for victim organizations to know who exactly they're sending money to during an incident.