Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), in coordination with Australia and the United Kingdom, designated Alexander Ermakov (Ermakov), a cyber actor who played a pivotal in the 2022 ransomware attack against Medibank Private Limited, an Australian healthcare insurer. In October 2022, Ermakov infiltrated the Medibank network, one of Australia’s largest private health insurers, covering over 3.9 million people with over 4,000 employees. During the attack, Ermakov stole Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and sensitive health information linked to approximately 9.7 million current and former customers and authorized representatives. Ermakov and the other actors behind the Medibank hack are believed to be linked to the Russia-backed cybercrime gang REvil. Ermakov is a Russian national and cybercriminal. He has been sanctioned for his role in the exfiltration and release on the dark net of 9.7 million records containing the personal information of Australians, including names, dates of birth, Medicare numbers, and sensitive medical information.
OFAC is designating Ermakov pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13694, as amended by E.O. 13757, for being responsible for or complicit in, or to have engaged in, directly or indirectly, an activity described in subsection (a)(ii) of section 1 of E.O. 13694, as amended.
Executive Order 13694 Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities;
Executive Order 13757 Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities
On December 31, 2015, OFAC issued the Cyber-Related Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR part 578 (80 FR 81752, December 31, 2015) (the “Regulations”) to implement Executive Order (E.O.) 13694 of April 1, 2015, “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities” (80 FR 18077, April 2, 2015), pursuant to authorities delegated to the Secretary of the Treasury in E.O. 13694. The Regulations were initially issued in abbreviated form for the purpose of providing immediate guidance to the public. OFAC is revising the Regulations to further implement E.O. 13694, as amended by E.O. 13757 of December 28, 2016, “Taking Additional Steps to Address the National Emergency With Respect to Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities” (82 FR 1, January 3, 2017), as well as certain provisions of title II of the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Pub. L. 115–44, 131 Stat. 886 (codified in scattered sections of 22 U.S.C.)) (CAATSA). OFAC is amending and reissuing the Regulations as a more comprehensive set of regulations that includes additional interpretive guidance and definitions, general licenses, and other regulatory provisions that will provide further guidance to the public. Due to the number of regulatory sections being updated or added, OFAC is reissuing the Regulations in their entirety.
E.O. 13694, as Amended by E.O. 13757. On April 1, 2015, the President, invoking the authority of, inter alia, the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), issued E.O. 13694. In E.O. 13694, the President determined that the increasing prevalence and severity of malicious cyber-enabled activities originating from, or directed by persons located, in whole or in substantial part, outside the United States constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States, and declared a national emergency to deal with that threat.
On December 28, 2016, the President issued E.O. 13757 to take additional steps to deal with the national emergency with respect to significant malicious cyber-enabled activities declared in E.O. 13694. E.O. 13757 added an Annex to E.O. 13694 and amended section 1 of E.O. 13694 by replacing section 1(a) in its entirety.
