The European Union has imposed severe sanctions on web hosting company Stark Industries and the two individuals who run it, CEO Iurie Neculiti and owner Ivan Neculiti, for facilitating cyberattacks against the Union.
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This action is part of the European Council's effort to protect itself from Russian hybrid threats. It affects 21 individuals and six entities that were involved in activities in support of Russia's foreign policy interests and in the dissemination of pro-Russian propaganda through the media.
Web hosting service Stark Industries stands out on the Council’s latest sanctions list. The company is registered in the United Kingdom and provides VPS/VDS servers in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Turkey and the United States. The company offers multiple payment methods, including the cryptocurrencies Bitcoin, Monero, Dash and Ether, which are often used to hide the origin of payments.
Public reports describe Stark Industries as a company that has “historically been considered a bulletproof hosting provider,” and it is also reported to have helped researchers detect infrastructure used by notorious cyber threat groups, such as FIN7 (also known as Sangria Tempest or Carbon Spider).
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In May 2024, a report by the German non-profit journalism organization CORRECTIV investigated the origins of Stark Industries, which was founded two weeks before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
According to CORRECTIV, various disinformation campaigns and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks in favor of Russia were detected on Stark Industries servers or other services provided by the Neculiti brothers.
In July of last year, a report by cyber-espionage firm Silent Push revealed malicious infrastructure that FIN7 was renting from Stark Industries. In August, however, researchers from Team Cymru — a cyber threat intelligence platform — announced that they had been working with Stark Industries for several months, aiming to identify and mitigate abuse of its systems.
Following the publication of the Silent Push report, researchers collaborated with Team Cymru and Stark Industries to dismantle FIN7's malicious infrastructure.
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Based on the above, an interesting and complex profile emerges for the company: it is a company operating in a cyber-gray zone. On the one hand, Stark Industries is accused of providing services that have been used in disinformation campaigns and cyberattacks in favor of Russia; on the other, it appears to have collaborated with research groups, such as Team Cymru, to identify and combat malicious actions.
Source: bleepingcomputer
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