In Canada, a 34-year-old man holding dual Russian and Canadian nationality has been handed a four-year prison term and fined 860,000 Canadian dollars for his role in launching cyberattacks using the LockBit ransomware. His arrest occurred in late 2022, moments before he could secure access to his laptop.
Evidence found on his laptop included lists of entities that were attacked or marked for future attacks, screenshots depicting conversations among LockBit operators, a manual for deploying the ransomware, coding for data encryption on Linux platforms, and photographs with details on LockBit victims.
LockBit operates on a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) basis, allowing criminals straightforward access to ransomware tools, with part of their profits paid to the malware creators. However, the criminals are tasked with disseminating the ransomware. The individual in question served as an ‘affiliate’ in this scheme.
The U.S. government has requested his extradition, a request he has complied with. Once in the U.S., he is slated to face a variety of legal charges, as per information from CTV News.
