Last year, before the onset of the Russia-Ukraine war, nearly 75% of cryptocurrency payouts for ransomware went to Russia, according to a study conducted by Chainanalysis. Let that sink in a moment. Then consider the legal ramifications of paying those ransoms now that Russia is a sanctioned country.
To Kurtis Minder, CEO of digital risk protection firm, GroupSense, these new sanctions mean he’ll be forced to turn down more ransomware victims seeking response and negotiation services or else risk running afoul of a growing list of sanctions issued by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
