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Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins – a former Canadian authorities IT skilled – was charged with conspiracy to commit pc and wire fraud and different offenses in a federal court docket in Florida, the US Division of Justice mentioned Friday.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) raided Vachon-Desjardins’ dwelling and seized 719 bitcoins price greater than $28 million, or 790,000 in Canadian foreign money.
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Prosecutors allege he used “NetWalker” ransomware to assault companies, municipalities, hospitals and legislation enforcement throughout the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The arrest is available in mild of a worldwide crackdown on ransomware. In November, US President Joe Biden pledged to make use of “the total energy of the federal authorities” to disrupt malicious cyber exercise.
Since then, a number of large-scale operations have taken down ransomware teams, corresponding to Russia-based REvil and different associated hacking teams.
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Bitcoin as Ransomware Fee
The cybersecurity group is more and more citing bitcoin and different cryptocurrencies as a significant factor in ransomware assaults.
Suspected ransomware funds totaling $590 million have been made within the first six months of 2022 and have continued to exceed estimates because the early months of 2022, US authorities mentioned.
One other key development that appears to be driving the rise in ransomware assaults this yr is the inflow of ransomware as a service supplied by affiliated ransomware teams around the globe.
Whereas the anonymity of cryptocurrency makes it an apparent manner for criminals to acquire and conceal cash, stricter laws or a ban on blockchain-based currencies are unlikely to cease the circulation of assaults.
Ransomware and cryptocurrencies appear inextricably linked, with attackers virtually all the time demanding cost in digital foreign money.
Shipped from Canada
In keeping with the US Division of Justice, Vachon-Desjardins was extradited to the US from Canada to “be charged in reference to dozens of ransomware assaults that resulted within the cost of tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} in ransom.”
In keeping with the DOJ, from April to December 2020, Sebastien “conspired to and deliberately harm a protected pc and demand a ransom in connection therewith.”
In January final yr, the Justice Division launched a coordinated worldwide legislation enforcement operation to dismantle the Netwalker ransomware gang.
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The NetWalker
NetWalker, also referred to as “Mailto”, is a large-scale ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) operation that recruits associates to deploy ransomware in trade for a big discount in ransom. The group emerged in 2019 and has been linked to many high-profile assaults.
The well-known ransomware infiltrates particular networks and encrypts all Home windows units related to it.
It quickly disables units and correlated networks till victims have paid the ransom for returning their knowledge recordsdata, in addition to entry to their computer systems and networks.
It’s distributed by way of numerous channels together with web sites, social media, prompt messages, e mail attachments and different types of communication.
NetWalker’s operators encrypt victims’ computer systems and demand ransoms starting from $1,000 to $3 million.
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