On April 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctioned darkweb Hydra Marketplace and virtual currency Garantex and added both to the Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN) [view related post].

On October 1, 2020, OFAC issued a Ransomware Advisory “to alert companies that engage with victims of ransomware

Three recent events are prompting me to update our previous blog post on the difficult decision of whether to pay or not to pay ransomware following an attack [view related post].

The first event is the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory on October 1, 2020,

On October 1, 2020, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued an advisory “to highlight the sanctions risks associated with ransomware payments related to malicious cyber-enabled activities.”

The advisory acknowledges that the incidents of ransomware attacks on U.S. companies have risen during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although the advisory does