The US and UK have imposed sanctions against the leader of the LockBit hacker group.

The US, UK , and Australia have imposed sanctions on Russian citizen Dmitry Khoroshev, designating him as the leader of the LockBit hacker group. This was reported by the US Treasury Department's press service.

"The United States has designated Dmitry Yuryevich Khoroshev, a Russian citizen and the leader of the Russia-based LockBit group, for his role in developing and distributing the LockBit ransomware," the department said in a statement. The Treasury Department added that the United Kingdom and Australia have taken similar measures against Khoroshev.

The US State Department also announced a reward of up to $10 million for information leading to the identification or location of key leaders of the LockBit group and those involved in its activities.

The LockBit group gained notoriety in 2021. it uses ransomware of the same name, which encrypts files on its victims' computers and demands payment to unlock them. Similar hacking attacks have also targeted the American branch of Industrial & Commercial Bank ofCHINA Ltd., British Post and Boeing.

In FebruaryBLOOMBERG reported on the hack of LockBit's infrastructure, including websites the group used to make ransomware payments. Citing statements from the hackers, the FBI reported that 1,600 US residents and 2,000 people in other countries fell victim to the cyberattacks.

In 2023, 20-year-old Ruslan Astamirov from Chechnya was arrested in the United States in connection with the LockBit case. He became the third Russian citizen accused of involvement in similar cyberattacks. Mikhail Vasiliev was previously detained in CANADA, and the US State Department issued a wanted notice for Mikhail Matveev.