Yaroslav Vasinskyi, a Ukrainian nationwide, was sentenced to 13 years and 7 months in jail and ordered to pay $16 million in restitution for his involvement within the REvil ransomware operation.
In line with the U.S. Division of Justice, Vasinskyi, additionally identified by his alias “Rabotnik,” was concerned in over 2,500 REvil (Sodinokibi) assaults demanding ransom funds surpassing $700 million.
The cybercriminal and his co-conspirators engaged in double extortion, the place they stole company information after which threatened to leak it publicly if the sufferer didn’t pay a ransom.
“Yaroslav Vasinskyi and his co-conspirators hacked into thousands of computers around the world and encrypted them with ransomware,” said Nicole M. Argentieri, head of the Justice Division’s Prison Division.
“Then they demanded over $700 million in ransom payments and threatened to publicly disclose victims’ data if they refused to pay.”
Vasinskyi was arrested in October 2021 whereas attempting to enter Poland and was charged with conspiracy to commit fraud, intentional injury to a protected laptop, and conspiracy to commit cash laundering.
Regulation enforcement linked the long-term REvil affiliate to the Kaseya supply-chain ransomware assaults, which impacted over 1,500 firms worldwide.
On the time, REvil associates leveraged a zero-day flaw in Kaseya VSA, a distant monitoring and administration (RMM) software program used primarily by managed service suppliers (MSPs).
This flaw allowed the risk actors to concurrently push encryptors to 1000’s of firms, inflicting one of many largest ransomware incidents in historical past.
In March 2022, the cybercriminal was extradited to america to face trial for his actions, together with at the very least 9 confirmed ransomware assaults in opposition to U.S.-based organizations.
The utmost potential sentence for all counts was 115 years in jail plus forfeiture of all property and monetary property.
The 24-year-old ransomware affiliate subsequently pleaded responsible to the 11-count indictment and was sentenced to roughly a tenth of the utmost sentence by the Northern District of Texas courtroom. Vasinskyi can even should pay $16,000,000 in restitution.
The U.S. DoJ announcement additionally highlighted the seizure of one other 39.89138522 Bitcoin and $6.1 million associated to ransom funds and operations not directly linked to Vasinskyi.
REvil was one of the crucial profitable ransomware operations in current historical past, reaching its peak in 2021 with the Kaseya MSP supply-chain assault, a $50 million ransom demand from laptop maker Acer, and blueprint leaks of unreleased upcoming Apple units.
The ransomware-as-a-service shut down in October 2021 following the hijacking of its Tor websites and elevated regulation enforcement efforts in Russia, finally resulting in a number of arrests a few months later.
