Canadian hacker admits guilt in massive Snowflake breach and multi-million extortion scheme
Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old from Kitchener, pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court to stealing data from 165 firms and extorting victims for millions.
In a Western District of Washington courtroom, Connor Moucka, 26, of Kitchener, Ontario, admitted guilt to four federal charges tied to the 2024 Snowflake data breach that compromised information from 165 organizations. The indictment alleges he helped infiltrate cloud accounts belonging to AT&T, Ticketmaster and Santander Bank, then used the stolen data to extort at least three victims for 36 bitcoin, valued at about $2.5 million, and attempted to sell the information for a minimum of $6 million.
Court filings show Moucka personally profited roughly $495,000 in bitcoin and created software to automate the identification of high-value data. The scheme inflicted more than $9.5 million in actual losses on the victim companies, including ransom payments and remediation costs. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva emphasized that anonymity offers no shield from justice, while FBI Cyber Division officials highlighted cooperation with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and international partners such as the Australian Federal Police, Spain's Guardia Civil, Ukraine's Security Service and Turkey's National Police.
Why it matters
The case shows that cross-border cybercriminals can be tracked and prosecuted, deterring future large-scale data theft.
In this story