Canadian ‘cyberterrorist’ sentenced to prison over NetWalker ransomware attacks


A Canadian man dubbed a “sophisticated cyberterrorist” by an Ontario judge has pleaded guilty in a series of NetWalker ransomware attacks on 17 Canadian entities, admitting to participating in extortion that resulted in nearly $3 million in losses and drew in millions more in cryptocurrency.

In what’s believed to be the largest of its kind in Canada — a complex case where stores of data were stolen, then held for ransom to be paid in bitcoin — Gatineau man Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins pleaded guilty in a Brampton court last week to a series of crimes called “extreme and significant” by a judge, including extortion and participating in a criminal organization.

“He is a sophisticated cyberterrorist who preyed in an organized way with others on entities in educational, health-care, governmental, and commercial sectors,” said Ontario court judge G. Paul Renwick in a Feb. 1 ruling, calling the losses in the case “monumental.”

A former Canadian government IT employee, Vachon-Desjardins “excelled at what he did,” Renwick wrote — that is, breaching private computer networks and systems, hijacking their data, holding it for ransom, then distributing it if he wasn’t paid.

“He played a dominant, almost exclusive, role in these offences and he assisted NetWalker and other affiliates by improving their ability to extort their victims and disguise their proceeds,” Renwick wrote, sentencing Vachon-Desjardins to six years and eight months in a federal penitentiary.

Vachon-Desjardins’ participation in NetWalker — a group of cybercriminals who attack targets using sophisticated ransomware — first made headlines last year when the U.S. Department of Justice announced charges against him as part of an international probe of into the cyber attacks. U.S. authorities alleged he’d illegally obtained more than $27.6 million.

Ransomware is a form of malicious software, or “malware,” that can encrypt a victim’s files and allow an attacker to seize control of their data. Cybercriminals then hold the data for ransom, demanding payment, typically in cryptocurrency, in exchange for restored access to the files, threatening to leak the data if no payment is received.

Source…