Canada has sentenced Russian-Canadian LockBit ransomware gang administrator Mikhail Vasiliev to four years imprisonment after pleading guilty to cyber extortion, weapons possession, and other charges related to his involvement in ransomware attacks against three of the country's companies from 2021 to 2022, reports The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
Moreover, damages amounting to $860,000 should also be paid by Vasiliev, who was reported by Canadian news outlet CTV to have permitted extradition to the U.S. Additional U.S. charges alleging conspiracy to compromise computers and launder ransom demands could garner up to five years of jail time for Vasiliev. Such a development comes nearly a month after the prolific LockBit ransomware operation was disrupted in an international law enforcement operation, which resulted in arrests in Poland and Ukraine, as well as the dismantling of its infrastructure. LockBit has since proceeded to leak data from organizations it had targeted before the takedown.
