“These malicious cyber activities have targeted critical infrastructure, including hospitals and medical facilities during a global pandemic, in both the U.S. and the U.K.,” the press release continues.

Trickbot is a virus that was developed from the the Dyre Trojan virus, which infects computers and steals financial data. The Trickbot virus was responsible for a series of ransomware attacks against hospitals in the United States.

“In one of these attacks, the Trickbot Group deployed ransomware abasing three Minnesota medical facilities, disrupting their computer networks and telephones, and causing a diversion of ambulances,” the Treasury Department said.

“Members of the Trickbot Group publicly gloated over the ease of targeting the medical facilities and the speed with which the ransoms were paid to the group,” the press release continues.

According to the Treasury Department, “current members of the Trickbot Group are associated with Russian Intelligence Services.”

The British government announced sanctions against the same individuals in coordination with the United States. The sanctions are the “first wave of new coordinated action against international cybercrime,” the British government said in a news release.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said the cyberattacks “cause real damage to people’s lives and livelihoods. We will always put our national security first by protecting the U.K. and our allies from serious organized crime — whatever its form and wherever it originates.”

The sanctioned individuals are:

• Mikhail Iskritskiy, known as “Tropa,” is accused of laundering money for Trickbot operations.
• Maksim Michailov, known as “Baget,” is accused of conducting development activity for Trickbot.
• Dmitry Pleshevskiy, known as “Iseldor” is accused of using malicious code to steal information from victims.
• Valentin Karyagin, known as “Globus” is accused of developing ransomware.
• Vitaly Kovalev, known as “Bentley” and “Ben” is accused of bank fraud for a series of intrusions into United States-based financial institutions.
• Valery Sedletski, known as “Strix,” is accused of working as an administrator for Trickbot and managing servers.
• Ivan Vakhromeyev, known as “Mushroom,” is accused of being a manager for Trickbot group.