"Former Canadian Government IT Worker Pleads Guilty Over NetWalker Ransomware Attacks"
An ex-Canadian government employee recently pleaded guilty in Florida court to charges of involvement with the NetWalker ransomware group. Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, 34, was accused of conspiracy to commit computer fraud and wire fraud, as well as intentional damage to a protected computer and transmitting a demand concerning damaging a protected computer. Vachon-Desjardins was extradited in March, following the launch of a US global action against the NetWalker cyber-criminal gang in January. Justice G.P. Renwick stated that between May 2020 and January 2021, the defendant victimized 17 Canadian entities and others worldwide 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. NetWalker has been active since 2019, with the group offering its malware to threat actors in a ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS) model. According to a 2020 report by McAfee, NetWalker made $25m in just five months in that year. Court documents filed in a district court in Florida claimed the NetWalker group stole a total of 5058 bitcoin in illegal payments (about $40m at the time of the transaction). Sebastien was named “one of the most prolific NetWalker ransomware affiliates” and would be responsible for the extortion of about 1864 bitcoin.