Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins faces a $21.5 million fine and up to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to his affiliate role with the NetWalker ransomware as a Service (RaaS) operation.
The 35-year-old Canadian national, deported from Quebec earlier this year, was convicted on four counts of fraud and conspiracy.
RELATED RESOURCE
Escape the ransomware maze
Conventional endpoint protection tools just aren’t the best defence anymore
The charges levied upon the hacker in a federal court in Florida this week included: conspiracy to commit computer fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, intentional damage to a protected computer, and transmitting a demand in relation to damaging a protected computer
Vachon-Desjardins was a former employee of the Canadian government at the Public Works and Government Services agency and was first arrested on January 27, 2021, in connection with the Russian state-linked NetWalker cyber crime outfit.
Following this initial arrest, he was sentenced by a Canadian judge to more than six years in prison before being extradited to face criminal charges in the US.
He is alleged to have obtained at least $27.6 million as a result of his participation in fraud offenses involving NetWalker ransomware between April and December 2020.
The NetWalker ransomware operation extorted tens of millions of US dollars since its inception in 2019, according to the US Department of Justice (DoJ), Affiliates of the operation were tasked with deploying the encryptor payload and received a share of all ransom payments.
"The defendant identified and attacked high-value ransomware victims and profited from the chaos caused by encrypting and stealing the victims’ data,” said General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr, assistant attorney of the US DoJ's Criminal Division.
“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.”
The DoJ also said Vachon-Desjardins was personally responsible for attacks on "hundreds of victims in numerous countries".
Vachon-Desjardins was sentenced to a total of 240 months (20 years) in prison and will also have to serve three years of supervised release following his jail term.
The Canadian will also be prohibited from working in IT or using a device capable of connecting to the internet, including a smartphone.
The ransomware operation was dismantled by the US Justice Department in January 2021 with support from the Bulgarian National Investigation Service and General Directorate Combating Organized Crime. All sites on the dark web intended for negotiating payments for data decryption by NetWalker were subsequently seized.
-
M&S suspends online sales as 'cyber incident' continuesNews Marks & Spencer (M&S) has informed customers that all online and app sales have been suspended as the high street retailer battles a ‘cyber incident’.
-
Manners cost nothing, unless you’re using ChatGPTOpinion Polite users are costing OpenAI millions of dollars each year – but Ps and Qs are a small dent in what ChatGPT could cost the planet
-
Ransomware attacks are rising — but quiet payouts could mean there's more than actually reportedNews Ransomware attacks continue to climb, but they may be even higher than official figures show as companies choose to quietly pay to make such incidents go away.
-
Cleo attack victim list grows as Hertz confirms customer data stolen – and security experts say it won't be the lastNews Hertz has confirmed it suffered a data breach as a result of the Cleo zero-day vulnerability in late 2024, with the car rental giant warning that customer data was stolen.
-
‘Phishing kits are a force multiplier': Cheap cyber crime kits can be bought on the dark web for less than $25 – and experts warn it’s lowering the barrier of entry for amateur hackersNews Research from NordVPN shows phishing kits are now widely available on the dark web and via messaging apps like Telegram, and are often selling for less than $25.
-
Healthcare systems are rife with exploits — and ransomware gangs have noticedNews Nearly nine-in-ten healthcare organizations have medical devices that are vulnerable to exploits, and ransomware groups are taking notice.
-
Alleged LockBit developer extradited to the USNews A Russian-Israeli man has been extradited to the US amid accusations of being a key LockBit ransomware developer.
-
February was the worst month on record for ransomware attacks – and one threat group had a field day
News February 2025 was the worst month on record for the number of ransomware attacks, according to new research from Bitdefender.
-
CISA issues warning over Medusa ransomware after 300 victims from critical sectors impactedNews The Medusa ransomware as a Service operation compromised twice as many organizations at the start of 2025 compared to 2024
-
Warning issued over prolific 'Ghost' ransomware groupNews The Ghost ransomware group is known to act fast and exploit vulnerabilities in public-facing appliances
