A U.S. federal court judge sentenced a Gatineau man to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for using ransomware to extort millions of dollars from companies, municipalities and hospitals.
Sebastian Vachon-Desjardins, 35, pleaded guilty to using a sophisticated form of ransomware known as NetWalker to target victims all over the world during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a media release on Tuesday.
“The defendant identified and attacked high-value ransomware victims and profited from the chaos caused by encrypting and stealing the victims’ data,” Kenneth Polite Jr., an assistant attorney general with the justice department’s criminal division, said in a statement. “Today’s sentence demonstrates that ransomware actors will face significant consequences for their crimes and exemplifies the department’s steadfast commitment to pursuing actors who participate in ransomware schemes.”
No comments:
Post a Comment