Britain and the EU formally blamed Russia’s FSB Center 16 for late-2025 cyber-attacks on Poland’s energy infrastructure and rolled out sanctions against 24 people and entities tied to destructive cyber and hybrid operations.
UK officials said the attack failed but could have cut power to 500,000 people in winter, while a parallel advisory from 12 countries warned the same unit is actively targeting vulnerable routers worldwide.
The advisory said Center 16 scans for routers using default or weak SNMP credentials, then can exfiltrate configurations via TFTP; it has also exploited Cisco flaws including CVE-2018-0171 on unpatched, often end-of-life devices.
Communications, defence, energy, finance, government and healthcare were flagged as most exposed, with agencies urging operators to move to SNMPv3 or disable risky features where patching is not possible.
Britain also sanctioned people behind Lumma Stealer, saying Russia has used stolen credentials for espionage; the National Crime Agency counted at least 2,100 UK victims in the past six months.
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Europe Strikes Back: New Sanctions on Russia’s Information Warfare and Hybrid Threats (July 2026)
Overview
On July 13, 2026, the European Union and United Kingdom launched coordinated sanctions targeting Russia’s foreign information warfare campaigns, demonstrating a unified response to ongoing geopolitical threats. This move comes as France prepares to host a major summit of Ukraine’s allies, highlighting the strategic timing of these actions. The UK has steadily escalated its campaign, sanctioning dozens of entities and individuals since 2024, while the EU has detailed the widespread impact of Russian disinformation across multiple member states. Together, these efforts underscore a robust and collaborative approach to countering Russia’s persistent hybrid threats in Europe.