https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/01/business/frozen-russian-assets-ukraine/index.html



London
CNN
—
Russian assets frozen in European accounts are generating billions of dollars in interest payments that could be diverted to help repair Ukraine’s war-torn economy — and the European Union just took a step closer to doing that.

After Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries froze nearly half of Moscow’s foreign reserves — some €300 billion ($327 billion). Around €200 billion ($218 billion) sits in the European Union — mostly at Euroclear, a financial institution that keeps assets safe for banks, exchanges and investors.

EU leaders agreed a crucial $50 billion funding package for Ukraine on Thursday and came closer to finalizing a plan to use the profits piling up in Euroclear’s accounts.

In a statement issued at the end of a summit, EU leaders said “potential revenues could be generated … concerning the use of extraordinary revenues held by private entities stemming directly from the immobilized Central Bank of Russia assets.”

https://www.cnn.com/2024/01/24/tech/hewlett-packard-enterprise-hack-russia-cozy-bear/index.html

New York
CNN
—
Tech firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise says its cloud-based email systems were breached by the same Russian hacking group that compromised some Microsoft email accounts earlier this month.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise, also known as HPE, revealed the breach in a securities filing last week. The incident took place on December 12, 2023, and affected “a small percentage of HPE mailboxes belonging to individuals in our cybersecurity, go-to-market, business segments, and other functions,” the company said.

“The Company, with assistance from external cybersecurity experts, immediately activated our response process to investigate, contain, and remediate the incident, eradicating the activity,” HPE said in the filing.

HPE said in the filing it suspects a group sometimes referred to as “Midnight Blizzard” was responsible for last month’s attack.

The hacking group, which US officials and private experts say has links to Russia’s foreign intelligence service, has gained a reputation as one of the stealthiest and most advanced cyber espionage groups in the world. Private analysts have referred to the group as “Midnight Blizzard” or as part of a group known as “APT29,” among other names.