US Treasury Sanctions 1VPNS: The VPN Service Favored by Ransomware Groups

The US Department of the Treasury (OFAC), coordinated with the UK, sanctioned First VPN Service (1VPNS), its Ukrainian administrator Dmytro Rashevskyi, and Belarusian cryptor seller Yegeniy Silayev on July 13, 2026 for providing anonymization and malware-obfuscation services that enabled ransomware attacks against US critical infrastructure; European law enforcement had taken down 1VPNS infrastructure in May 2026 with FBI support, and the action signals a strategic shift to target ransomware supply-chain enablers.