And cybercriminale with dual Canadian and Russian citizenship, part of the well-known group LockBitwas sentenced to four years in prison due to his Web activities.
The thirty-three year old Mikhail Vasilieva resident of Ontario, Canada, has been involved in operations that have seen more than 1,000 victims infected by ransomware, resulting in the extortion of money by the aforementioned gang. Vasiliev was arrested during November 2022 and, over the past month, has already been found guilty of many eight counts.
In a raid on his home in October of the same year, Canadian law enforcement found Vasiliev himself with a laptop showing the login screen for control Panel offered by LockBit. Furthermore, in the name of the cybercriminal, a wallet con Bitcoin through which he had received a ransom payment from a ransomware victim.
Also aggravating the situation were some chats with a user, known as LockBitSupp, considered one of the main members of the group.
For the judge, the LockBit member is a real “Cyber-terrorist”
According to what was stated by the judge presiding over the case, Michelle FurstVasiliev is considered a “Cyber-terrorist“who acted through actions”Planned, deliberate and coldly calculated” as reported by CTVNews.
For the lawyer defending the Russian-Canadian, however “Mikhail Vasiliev has taken responsibility for his actions, and this manifested itself in today’s courtroom with the sentence that was imposed“.
LockBit appeared on the scene in 2019 and, within three years, became the most feared and widespread ransomware in the world. Its operating model is called Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS), which consists of offering software and infrastructure to affiliates who, in turn, use the malicious agent independently. According to estimates, LockBit has hundreds of affiliates spread all over the world.
Despite recent law enforcement operations aimed at dismantling this network, the structure appears to be quite difficult to eradicate.