Brisbane, Australia CNN —Australia has publicly named and imposed cyber sanctions on a Russian hacker for his alleged role in a 2022 ransomware attack, in the country’s first use of the penalty. At the time, the Australian Federal Police said investigators knew the identity of the attackers but declined to name them. On Tuesday, the Australian government revealed the name of the individual sanctioned — Russian national Aleksandr Ermakov, 33, an alleged member of the Russian ransomware gang REvil. When the Medibank attack took place later that year, experts said it could have been perpetrated by a REvil member — which Australian authorities confirmed on Tuesday. An initial ransom demand was made for $10 million (15 million Australian dollars).

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Persons: Aleksandr Ermakov, “, ” Richard Marles, GCHQ —, Marles, “ REvil, ” Abigail Bradshaw, Medibank, — Organizations: Australia CNN —, Australian Federal Police, Medibank, Australian Signals Directorate, FBI, National Security Agency, NSA, United Kingdom’s, Microsoft, JBS Foods, Russia’s Federal Security Service, REvil, Australian Cyber Security, ” Locations: Brisbane, Australia, Australia CNN — Australia, Russian, United States