The United States went on the offensive on Tuesday against the threat of cyber attacks by sanctioning a cryptocurrency exchange linked to Russian nationals and suspected of having been used by hackers in the context of ransomware operations .

The American authorities froze the assets of this platform, called SUEX, and also prohibited any American national from using it, as well as any company incorporated under American law from trading with it, on pain of sanctions.

This is the first time that the United States has sanctioned a cryptocurrency platform.

By virtue of its decentralized aspect, the cryptocurrency universe preserves a certain anonymity and is regularly used by criminal organizations to carry out financial transfers and money laundering.

Suex is one of the most prolific money laundering crypto services operating, so today's sanctions represent a positive step in the fight against cybercrime.

We commend OFAC for this designation and are proud to have assisted in the investigation.

https://t.co/0qT1gJJCLP

- Chainalysis (@chainalysis) September 21, 2021

The SUEX platform would operate from Russia

"SUEX has facilitated financial transactions involving the illicit proceeds generated by at least eight ransomware actors," the Treasury Department said in a statement, which only blocked SUEX assets located in territories under US jurisdiction.

An analysis of operations carried out on SUEX showed that more than 40% of them "were linked to illegal actors," said the Treasury Department.

The ransomware attack involves hackers breaking into an entity's computer network and then locking down the data.

The authors then ask the entity's officials to pay a ransom, most often in the form of cryptocurrency, in exchange for the unlock.

Created in 2018, the SUEX platform was officially registered in the Czech Republic.

Co-founded by a Russian national, it is controlled by shareholders based in Russia, according to several company registration sites.

According to several American media, SUEX even operates from Russia.

Moscow denies any responsibility

When contacted, the private equity firm to which the other cofounder of SUEX, of Czech nationality belongs, did not immediately follow up. Several ransomware attacks have made headlines in recent months, including the one that targeted US computer company Kaseya in July. By attacking this company, hackers gained access to more than a thousand companies it provides services around the world. At the end of 2020, it was the software publisher SolarWinds that had been targeted, which had affected government organizations and American companies.

Many large-scale attacks have been blamed on groups of Russian-speaking hackers or operating from Russian territory. Moscow has always denied any responsibility in this matter. The US government has repeatedly indicated that this issue is a priority. In early July, President Joe Biden solemnly called on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to act against ransomware cyber attacks.

According to a study published Tuesday, from the blockchain analysis firm (or blockchain, the technology on which the cryptocurrency architecture is built) Chainalysis, some $ 160 million in transactions were made, in bitcoins, via SUEX from actors known to carry out illegal Internet activity, including ransomware attacks.

Chainalysis, which publishes an annual report on crime in the cryptocurrency world, also claims that it was able to establish that SUEX was operating well from Moscow.

Pushing SUEX to close shop "would constitute", according to Chainalysis, "a blow for many of the biggest players who represent a threat on the Internet today".

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