A Canadian man has been charged for his participation in ransomware attacks by the NetWalker gang against 17 Canadian entities.
Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins pleaded guilty before an Ontario judge to multiple offenses, including one count of mischief to data, one count of unauthorized use of computer, two counts of extortion, and one count of participating in the activities of a criminal organization.
BleepingComputer reported that Desjardins was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison.
Although the judge said that Desjardins worked with the authorities to identify the victims and their losses, he still "played a dominant, almost exclusive, role in these offenses," which is aggravated by Desjardins’ unrelated drug trafficking criminal record and a prior sentence of 54 months imprisonment in Quebec.
"Between May 2020 and January 2021, the Defendant victimized 17 Canadian entities and others throughout the world by breaching private computer networks and systems, hi-jacking their data, holding the stolen data for ransom, and distributing stolen data when ransoms were not paid," the judge said, adding that Desjardins also admitted to investigators that more than 1,200 Bitcoins passed through his e-wallet and were shared with his co-conspirators and the developer of the NetWalker ransomware.
The FBI uncovered Desjardins’ identity after the US agency managed to connect email accounts he used to register accounts on XSS.is and HackForums with activity on online services he used – such as MEGA and ZoomInfo – to find financial information on his victims and upload the files he stole. Desjardins also purportedly shared his personal information on public forums, and even revealed that he was a former IT technician for the Public Works and Government Services Canada.
According to the US Department of Justice in a statement last year, Desjardins allegedly obtained over $27.6 million from successful attacks and extortion attempts since April 2020 – the date when he is believed to have first become an associate of the NetWalker gang.
A recent report by IT company NOVIPRO found that 56% of Canadian businesses affected by ransomware were forced to pay the full ransom demands of the hackers. That report also noted that 53% of Canadian companies said that their own employees are the largest source of cyber threats.
