In a joint operation conducted by Ontario Provisional Police (OPP) in coordination with US FBI and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), an Ottawa based person was arrested for launching sophisticated ransomware and espionage related malware attacks on governments, businesses and individuals based in Canada and United States.
As per the details available to our Cybersecurity Insiders, the arrest was a result of a project named CODA that was launched to investigate the reason behind the spike in cyber crimes.
Investigation taken up by CODA discovered that most of the cyber attacks were origination from Canada and so FBI asked the OPP to launch a detailed probe into the attack.
It was revealed thereafter that large volumes of attacks were being launched from a computer network drawn in the name of an Ottawa based man named Mathew Philbert, leading to his arrest on November 30th,2021 for using computer systems illegally and committing frauds and digital mischief to earn money in fraudulent way.
During the arrest, OPP learnt the person was also involved in bank card related frauds that include illegal money withdrawals from ATMs across Canada.
Philbert will be prosecuted in Canada and might also face extradition charges that will make him eligible to appear before several courts in United States, especially at the attorney’s office for the district of Alaska.
Note- OPP released another statement that threat actors were apparently targeting the infrastructures of America and Canada with sophistication resulting in serious consequences, if both governments do not take measures to curb such attacks.
