Capitals froze assets and banned doing business with Iranian company Emennet Pasargad, which in 2023 stole data of subscribers to the French magazine and advertised the data for sale on the dark web, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.
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Charlie Hebdo was targeted by terrorists in 2015 after publishing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammed.
Microsoft in 2023 pinned the data theft on Emennet Pasargad, which happened after the magazine published cartoons mocking then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Capitals also sanctioned Chinese company Integrity Technology Group and Chinese firm Anxun Information Technology, also known as i-Soon, and its co-founders Chen Cheng and Wu Haibo, who are banned from entering the EU, the EU sanctions listing showed.
According to the details of the sanctions, Anxun Information Technology targeted “critical infrastructure and critical state functions” of EU countries and sold classified information as part of so-called hack-for-hire services.
The United States Department of Justice in March 2025 indicted 12 people involved in i-Soon for cyberattacks the U.S. said it had carried out at the behest of Chinese security services. Chinese security services “paid handsomely” for the data the groups stole, the department said.
Integrity Technology Group, the other Chinese company, facilitated the activities of a Chinese state hacking group dubbed Flax Typhoon, which security officials say has targeted organizations in Taiwan for espionage purposes.
Flax Typhoon used Integrity’s products and technology to hack into more than 65,000 devices in six EU member countries, the Council of the EU said on Monday. The U.S. Treasury Department also sanctioned Integrity in January 2025.
The United Kingdom hit both Chinese companies with sanctions late last year.
