U.S. imposes sanctions against MTS cybersecurity subsidiary MTS Red

MOSCOW. Aug 26 (Interfax) - The United States has imposed sanctions against Serenity Cyber Security LLC, a subsidiary of Russian mobile service provider MTS that provides cybersecurity services under the MTS Red brand, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a press release on Friday.

MTS Red, which was registered in August 2022 and has charter capital of 200 million rubles, provides VPN, DDoS attack protection, multifactor authentication and web app security services. The company has its own cyber incident monitoring and response center.

MTS Red is not the first Russian information security company to be hit with sanctions. Positive Technologies , for example, was included in the U.S. Specially Designated Nationals List (SDN List) earlier.

Treasury said MTS Red provides services to Russia's metals and mining sector. Specifically, it signed a cooperation agreement on information security for the development of cybersecurity products and services for the industrial sector with a Russian metals and mining conglomerate in 2024.

MTS Red posted a press release on its website on May 17 announcing the signing of a cooperation agreement on information security with mining giant Nornickel . The goals of the partnership include developing cybersecurity products and services tailored to industrial organizations, the company said.