On February 2, 2017 U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) announced that it published Cyber-related General License 1 titled “Authorizing Certain Transactions with the Federal Security Service,” pursuant to Executive Order 13694 of April 1, 2015, “Blocking the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities.”

According to the announcement, “GL 1 authorizes certain transactions with the Federal Security Service (a.k.a. FSB) that are necessary and ordinarily incident to requesting certain licenses and authorizations for the importation, distribution, or use of certain information technology products in the Russian Federation….”.

All other transaction, activities, exports, and reexports that were otherwise prohibited remain prohibited, except for the narrow functions listed in General License 1.

The announcement can be accessed at:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20170202_33.aspx

General License 1 can be viewed at:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cyber_gl1.pdf