American and U.K. police led the effort, taking over the gang’s digital infrastructure—which they’ll use to drip out details about how LockBit worked—and offering decryption keys to free locked-up data from LockBit’s clutches. The RCMP were part of the multinational team, playing what a spokesperson called a support role on an intelligence task force. (The Logic)

Talking point: After being arrested in Canada in late 2022 and pleading guilty to cyber extortion charges here earlier this month, Russian-Canadian Mikhail Vasiliev is facing extradition to the U.S. over his involvement with the gang. LockBit’s model has been ransomware as a service—supplying hacking tools to assorted affiliates who launch the actual cyberattacks. Last June, the Canadian Centre for Cybersecurity said LockBit was responsible for 22 per cent of all attributed ransomware attacks in Canada in 2022. One of its victims last year was bookseller Indigo; another, Toronto’s SickKids, was supposedly targeted by a rogue LockBit “partner” whose actions the group itself disclaimed.