Arrest Made
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the indictment of Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a Canadian national who is suspected of working as a NetWalker affiliate and helping to conduct a ransomware attack against a victim in Florida. Vachon-Desjardins is alleged to have made $27.6 million from infecting victims with the NetWalker ransomware.
Vachon-Desjardins has been charged with intentional damage to a protected computer, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison, the federal indictment notes.
Bulgarian authorities have seized the servers used to support the darknet sites used by NetWalker ransomware affiliates to provide payment instructions and communicate with victims, according to the Justice Department.
Law Enforcement Aims to Take Down Netwalker Ransomware
The Department of Justice has so far charged one Canadian national and seized nearly $500,000 in relation to Netwalker ransomware.
The Department of Justice (DoJ) has announced a coordinated law enforcement operation to disrupt Netwalker, an advanced form of ransomware.
Related Content:
Netwalker has targeted a range of victims including businesses, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities, the DoJ reports. Its operators have specifically targeted the healthcare sector during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Attackers who deploy Netwalker, which operates in a ransomware-as-a-service model, usually gain access to a target machine days or weeks before a ransom note is delivered, officials say. During this time, they escalate privileges and spread Netwalker across devices. Once they have infected enough computers, they send a ransom note.
US Launches Global Action Against NetWalker
The United States Department of Justice has launched a global law enforcement action against a cyber-criminal gang that has made millions by selling ransomware-as-a-service (RaaS).
A coordinated international law enforcement action to disrupt NetWalker was announced by the Department yesterday.
NetWalker ransomware has claimed numerous victims, including companies, municipalities, hospitals, law enforcement departments, emergency services, school districts, colleges, and universities. In June last year, the University of California San Francisco admitted paying $1.14m to recover important academic work stored on some of its School of Medicine servers that had been encrypted by NetWalker.
“This action reflects the resolve of the US Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida to target and disrupt sophisticated, international cybercrime schemes,” said US Attorney Maria Chapa Lopez for t