The EU Council has sanctioned entities and individuals from
China, Russia, and North Korea due to their involvement in
cyber-attacks.
This is the first time that the EU Council uses the authority
granted to it under EU regulation 2019/796, adopted in May 2019, to
impose targeted restrictive measures against significant
cyber-attacks constituting an external threat to the European
Union, its Member States, or other countries and organizations.
Among those sanctioned by the Council is the Russian information
security agency (the GTsST), who was accused to be responsible for
cyber-attacks publicly known as "NotPetya" or
"EternalPetya" in June 2017, for ransomware that rendered
data inaccessible at companies around the world, and for the
cyber-attacks directed at a Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and 2016.
In addition, four of the GTsST's agents were sanctioned for
their involvement in an attempted cyber-attack against the
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical
