Sebastien Vachon-Desjardins, a Canadian man charged by the US for his involvement in NetWalker ransomware attacks, was sentenced to 6 years and 8 months in prison after pleading guilty before an Ontario judge to multiple offenses linked to attacks on 17 Canadian victims.
On Monday, the
judge said that, although Desjardins cooperated with the authorities to help identify victims and their losses, he still "played a dominant, almost exclusive, role in these offenses," aggravated by an unrelated drug trafficking criminal record and a prior sentence of 54 months imprisonment in Quebec.
The FBI discovered Desjardins's true identity
after linking email accounts (Microsoft, Gmail, and Protonmail) he used to register accounts on XSS.is and HackForums with online activity (searches and emails) with multiple services (MEGA, ExpressVPN, ZoomInfo) he used to upload files stolen from victims' networks, hide his real IP address, and find financial info on his victims.
