Hacker pleads guilty to stealing data from more than 165 Snowflake customers
A 26-year-old Canadian has admitted to hacking more than 165 companies and extorting victims. He faces sentencing in October.
The U.S. Justice Department announced Wednesday that Connor Moucka, a 26-year-old Canadian citizen, has pleaded guilty to hacking more than 165 companies, stealing billions of records and extorting several businesses and individuals.
Moucka was accused of breaking into cloud provider Snowflake, enabling him and his alleged co-conspirators to access the systems of dozens of customers, including AT&T, LendingTree and Ticketmaster. The stolen data included call and text records from more than 100 million AT&T customers, as well as banking information, driver's license numbers and Social Security numbers obtained in other breaches.
According to the DOJ, Moucka and his accomplices received more than $2.5 million in ransom payments over the years. Moucka also earned around $500,000 by selling stolen data on hacking forums, including the notorious BreachForums. The department said victims suffered losses totaling $9.5 million.
FBI special agent W. Mike Herrington, who investigated the case, said Moucka's threats and re-extortion tactics were calculated and predatory, causing real harm to targeted companies and the millions of customers affected.
Moucka, known online as Waifu and Judische, was arrested in Canada in late 2024, just months after the Snowflake breaches. At the time, Austin Larsen, a senior researcher at Google's Mandiant, called Moucka “one of the most consequential” hackers of 2024.
Sentencing is scheduled for October 27. Moucka faces decades in prison.
