Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old from Kitchener, Ont., pleaded guilty in the U.S. to charges stemming from a hacking and extortion campaign that targeted customers of a major cloud storage provider reported to be Snowflake. U.S. prosecutors said Moucka, who was extradited to the U.S. last year, and his co-conspirators used stolen login credentials to access sensitive data belonging to dozens of companies and obtain ransom payments totalling more than US$2.5 million. (The Logic)

Talking point: Victim companies lost a combined US$9.5 million, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Prosecutors allege the scheme exposed billions of records, including banking information, passport numbers and social security numbers. Along with extorting victims themselves, the hackers advertised the stolen data for sale on Telegram and various cybercrime forums, according to the DOJ. Moucka’s sentencing is scheduled for Oct. 27. He faces up to 30 years in prison.  

Sponsored Content

The real-world economic offshoots of sovereign AI

By Deborah Aarts

Increasing healthcare access across Canada

By Deborah Aarts

What it takes to lead a frontier firm

By Deborah Aarts

Paid promotional content