U.S. Sanctions First VPN Service and Malware Cryptor Seller Over Ransomware Support

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated two individuals and a commercial VPN provider — plus a malware cryptor seller — for knowingly supporting ransomware operations by providing anonymization/proxy services and obfuscation tools; the report outlines the sanctions' operational effects, industry reaction, international coordination, and recommended vendor due diligence and endpoint defenses.