May 2 (UPI) — A Ukrainian hacker accused of being behind the infamous Kaseya cyberattack of 2021 has been sentenced to more than 13 years in prison for his role in thousands of ransomware crimes.
Yaroslav Vasinskyi, 24, was sentenced Wednesday to 13 years and seven months in prison and ordered to pay more than $16 million in restitution.
Federal prosecutors accused him of being behind 2,500 ransomware attacks, including the hit on U.S.-based software company Kaseya in the summer of 2021 when the United States was confronting a series of high-profile cyberattacks on private companies and infrastructure.
They said Vasinskyi was an affiliate of the REvil cybercriminal organization, which also goes by the name Sodinokibi, and that he was the author of the ransomware used in the Kaseya attack.
Kaseya at the time said some 1,500 business had been impacted, while President Joe directed the government’s full resources to investigate the crime.
“Deploying the REvil ransomware variant, the defendant reached out across the globe to demand hundreds of millions of dollars from U.S. victims,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement.
“But this case shows the Justice Department’s reach is also global — working with our international partners, we are bringing to justice those who target U.S. victims, and we are disrupting the broader cybercrime ecosystem.”
His indictment was announced in November of 2021 by Attorney General Merrick Garland who said Vasinskyi personally installed the ransomware on U.S.-based company’s network.
Vasinskyi was arrested in Poland and charged in the United States in the fall 2021 and later pleaded guilty in the Northern District of Texas to an 11-count indictment charging him with an array of offenses including conspiracy to commit fraud, damage to protected computers and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
