A dual Russian and Canadian national has been arrested over his alleged involvement in attacks targeting critical infrastructure.
The French National Gendarmerie, Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, the FBI, and the Canadian Royal Canadian Mounted Police assisted in the arrest of a man in Ontario, Canada. Police seized eight computers, 32 external hard drives, and $400,000 in cryptocurrencies during the arrest.
In October last year, a joint international law enforcement operation resulted in the arrest of two of his associates.
According to Europol, Vasiliev was one of its high-value targets due to his involvement in many high-profile Ransomware cases. According to the EU police agency, he is known for trying to extort money from people.
The Department of Justice stated in a press release that LockBit has claimed at least 1,000 victims in the United States and has taken tens of millions of dollars from their victims.
The United States is planning to extradite Vasiliev, who is accused of conspiracy to damage protected computers and transmit extortion demands. He could face five years in prison if convicted.
FBI deputy director Paul Abbate said that yesterday's successful arrest shows the FBI's ability to apply relentless pressure against their adversaries. The FBI is committed to using all of its resources to protect the American public from cyber threats.
According to a threat analyst at Emisosft, the arrest of Vasiliev could signal the end of the Lock Bit operation.
This is a significant arrest and the group will probably change their name. Vasiliev could lead other people in the operation.
Europol did not name the specific victims targeted by LockBit. France's involvement in the operation suggests that Vasiliev may have been involved in a recent attack on French defense group.
On October 31, LockBit added the French company to its leak site. The group claims to have published data that is very sensitive and high risk. Commercial documents, accounting files and customer files are some of the contents of the data leak, according to LockBit.
According to a message on the LockBit leak site, customers can approach the relevant organizations to consider taking legal action against the company that has neglected confidentiality.
Our request for comment was not responded to by the spokesman for the company.
The gang has accessed technical documents and source code, and samples of the data suggest that. The leak page claims to offer access to the full amount of data for $50 million.
According to Continental, attackers were able to steal some data from the affected IT systems, but they wouldn't say how many customers or employees were affected.
Ransomware recovery can be costly, and not just because of the ransom
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