Most of the targets are U.N.-related agencies, commissions and advisory panels that focus on climate, labor and other issues that the Trump administration has categorized as catering to diversity and woke initiatives. The Trump Administration has found these institutions to be redundant in their scope, mismanaged, unnecessary, wasteful, poorly run, captured by the interests of actors advancing their own agendas contrary to our own, or a threat to our nation's sovereignty, freedoms, and general prosperity, the State Department said in a statement.
"Sanctions will not deter all malicious cyber activity," he said. "What they can do is complicate operations, raise costs, disrupt enabling infrastructure and signal collective resolve." Saiz explained that sanctions can deter adversaries by imposing friction, restricting access to various resources - both financial and technical - and making threat actor networks publicly toxic, such as the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA) did to LockBit with some success. However, he warned, cyber sanctions do not deter every threat actor and their practical impact varies wildly.