Key Member Of Lockbit Ransomware Gang Gets Jail Sentence And $860K Fine
Mikhail Vasiliev is a 34-year-old Russian-born Canadian man who reportedly came into the criminal cybersecurity scene during the pandemic. According to a report, between 2021 and 2022, he had attempted to extort three Canadian companies for hundreds of thousands of dollars after breaching their systems and encrypting their data as part of the ransomware gang LockBit. Thankfully, he was arrested around a year and a half ago by Canadian police, who found him in his Bradford, Ontario home in the act of committing cybercrimes.
CTV News reports that last month, Vasiliev pleaded guilty to eight counts of “cyber extortion, mischief and weapons charges,” which he has now been sentenced for. Justice Michelle Fuerst, who called Vasiliev a “cyber-terrorist,” sentenced him to approximately four years in jail and has also been ordered to pay $860,000 in restitution to the Canadian companies that were affected by his actions. Beyond this, Vasiliev awaits extradition to New Jersey, where he will face U.S. prosecutors for similar crimes, including "conspiracy to intentionally damage protected computers and to transmit ransom demands.”
While this will be an ongoing ordeal for Vasiliev, his family reportedly plans to relocate back to Russia, subsequently leaving him behind. This goes to show that crimes like Vasiliev’s will eventually catch up to you, and while they may pay, you won’t be left with much else by the end of it all. In any event, it will be interesting to follow the case Stateside, so stay tuned to HotHardware for the latest on the LockBit prosecution.
