Canadas most prolific hacker to pay back victims Ottawa Citizen

pOttawas Matthew Philbert pleaded guilty to fraud unauthorized use of a computer possesstraffic in computer password and mischief to computer datappIts not every day that fraud victims get their money backppppBut Canadas most prolific hacker who launched ransomware attacks from his Ottawa home that left some targets in financial ruin will be making full restitutionppppMatthew Philbert 33 pleaded guilty to years of cyber attacks and was recently sentenced to two years in jail The court has set a date later this year to sort out potential restitution but this newspaper has learned that he will pay back every cent Its around 49200 in allppSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across CanadappSubscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across CanadappCreate an account or sign in to continue with your reading experienceppppThe bitcoin seized at Philberts residence is worth as of todays value around 34000 and his lawyer Michael Johnston has around 16000 in trustppppSo the fraud victims will be fully restituted and the details will be ironed out in courtppppPhilbert targeted the computers of more than 1000 people businesses and organizations including three police departmentsppppIn his exhaustive campaign Philbert used a remoteaccess malware program that gave the intruder full control over target computersppppPhilbert used anonymous email addresses and connections to remote servers to mask his identityppppThe emails were sent under the false pretext of securing employment with an attached fake resumé that contained malwareppppOnce a victim opened the attachment the embedded malware allowed Philbert access and full control over the target computer Philbert would then collect banking logins and send email transfers from the victims account without their knowledge according to an agreed statement of facts filed in courtppppThe successful Ontario Provincial Police investigation also revealed Philberts bitcoin wallet received payment for four different ransomware attacks In each of these cases the target computer was rendered unusable until the victim paid a ransom in cryptocurrencyppppOn the day police arrested Philbert at home Nov 30 2021 they searched the place and seized his cryptocurrency In all police seized 061943121 BTC equivalent to around 46000 at the time and transferred it to an OPP cryptocurrency walletppppThe OPP investigation also established that Philbert gave virtual access to the stolen login credentials and passwords to unidentified third partiesppppOnce this information is disseminated to unidentified third parties the opportunities to further disseminate this information are limitless according to his admission of facts in courtppppThe OPP case identified 1113 total victims Once they unwittingly clicked on the malware bait Philbert could intercept view and control their computers right down to turning on the web cameras collecting passwords and really anything else he wanted He took screenshots of a live camera view a virtual meeting in progress and an email account all without anyone knowing according to the admitted factsppppMost of the victims whose computers were compromised did not lose moneyppppHe was bold enough to target the computers of not one but three police departments Nishnawbe Aski Police in Thunder Bay and the City of Kawartha Lakes Police Department in Ontario and the West Vancouver Police DepartmentppppAnd Philbert was cold enough to target the computer system of Ronald McDonald House in Halifax Employees there like the police departments would not have known their computers were compromised and did not lose any moneyppppThe OPP case against Philbert began in January 2020 after the FBI shared the fruits of its investigation into his cyber attack on a computer server owned by the State of AlaskappppOPP detectives got busy and secured judicial authorization for a handful of warrants for tracking covert entry and later the searchppppPhilbert pleaded guilty to fraud unauthorized use of a computer possesstraffic in computer password and mischief to computer datappppOur website is your destination for uptotheminute news so make sure to bookmark our homepage and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informedppppgdimmockpostmediacomppppPostmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion and encourage all readers to share their views on our articles Comments may take up to an hour for moderation before appearing on the site We ask you to keep your comments relevant and respectful We have enabled email notificationsyou will now receive an email if you receive a reply to your comment there is an update to a comment thread you follow or if a user you follow comments Visit our Community Guidelines for more information and details on how to adjust your email settingspp365 Bloor Street East Toronto Ontario M4W 3L4pp 2024 Ottawa Citizen a division of Postmedia Network Inc All rights reserved Unauthorized distribution 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