Foreign Secretary welcomes first EU sanctions against malicious cyber actors

30 Jul 2020 07:24 PM

Dominic Raab welcomes decisive action which raises the cost for hostile cyber activity.

The UK has welcomed yesterday’s announcement (Thursday 30 July) that the EU has imposed sanctions against nine individuals and organisations from North Korea, China and Russia, in the first set of sanctions under the EU’s cyber sanctions regime. The UK was at the forefront of efforts to establish the EU Cyber Sanctions regime and will continue to implement this regime at the end of the Transition Period, through our own autonomous UK Cyber Sanctions regime.

These sanctions - which are now in force in the UK - send a strong signal that malicious cyber activity against our European partners and allies has consequences. The cyber sanctions will impose meaningful costs for the reckless behaviour of state and non-state actors through asset freezes and travel bans within the EU, including the UK.

The UK is committed to working with our international partners to agree responsible behaviours and promote international security and stability in cyberspace. And we’ve recently laid the statutory instrument for our own UK autonomous cyber sanctions regime, which will allow us to impose travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and organisations.

The UK has previously identified the organisations sanctioned for their roles in state sponsored cyber attacks which targeted democratic institutions, critical national infrastructure, media outlets and international organisations. These include:

The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, said:

These actions will raise the cost on malicious cyber activity by state and non-state actors and will help counter future hostile activity in cyberspace. The UK was at the forefront of efforts to establish the EU Cyber Sanctions regime and we will continue to implement this regime after the end of the Transition Period.

Notes to Editors