Russian Cyber Army members face US sanctions

Russian state-backed hacktivist operation Cyber Army of Russia Reborn, which emerged two years ago, had its leader Yuliya Pankratova, also known as YUliYA, and main hacker Denis Degtyarenko, also known as Dena, subjected to U.S. sanctions for their roles in the compromise of critical infrastructure organizations in the U.S. and Europe since late 2023, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

After targeting U.S. and European water, wastewater, hydroelectric, and energy organizations' industrial control systems with simple attacks last year, CARR has proceeded to compromise Texas-based water storage tanks, as well as a U.S. energy firm's Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition system earlier this year, reported the U.S. Department of the Treasury. "Despite CARR briefly gaining control of these industrial control systems, instances of major damage to victims have thus far been avoided due to CARR’s lack of technical sophistication," said the Treasury Department.