People often ask us at The Fifth Estate how we find our stories. Here’s a perfect example.
As I was doing research earlier this year for a different story, I came across a sentencing decision in Ontario provincial court that leapt off the screen at me.
It read like the synopsis of a binge-worthy Netflix series.
A former IT specialist for the Canadian government pleaded guilty to a complex set of charges, that included extortion and theft of computer data. Sébastien Vachon-Desjardins, 35, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a criminal ransomware organization called NetWalker that police believed was tied to Russia.
Ransomware is a malicious software used by hackers to take control of a company or organization’s computer network and sensitive data. Hackers demand payment in cryptocurrency in exchange for returning access to the victim.
It’s on the rise and has become the most common cyber threat Canadians face, according to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security.
In January 2021, RCMP raided Vachon-Desjardins’s house in Gatineau, Que. They found hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and devices containing terabytes of data that would lead them to dozens of victims and the largest seizure of cryptocurrency in Canadian history.
I had so many questions. Who was Sébastien Vachon-Desjardins? How did a federal government employee become one of the most successful affiliates of NetWalker ransomware? And what happened to the victims?
We connected with our colleagues at Radio-Canada’s investigative program Enquête and dug into the story together.
Law enforcement in Canada and the U.S. agreed to take us inside their investigations and tell us how they caught Vachon-Desjardins. In fact, we obtained part of a video recording of his confession to RCMP, which you will see in tonight’s episode.
You’ll also hear what it was like for people who one minute were doing their jobs at municipalities or health institutions already stressed by COVID-19 and the next were being electronically held hostage with a countdown clock imploring them to pay up. You might find yourself asking how you would respond.
We unravel the full story in our documentary tonight. You can watch it on CBC-TV at 9 p.m. or stream it on CBC Gem.
Roxanna Woloshyn
Associate producer, “Hunting the Hacker of Gatineau” |
