Snowflake Breach: Hacker Pleads Guilty as Ransom Costs Surface
AI-generated image · US National Wire
A Canadian citizen admitted to stealing data from over 165 companies, with the U.S. Department of Justice revealing millions in ransom payments.
The financial toll of the Snowflake security failures is becoming clear as a 26-year-old Canadian citizen, Connor Moucka, pled guilty to hacking more than 165 companies. According to reporting from TechCrunch, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that Moucka and his co-conspirators extracted more than $2.5 million in ransom payments through extortion tactics.
Moucka, who operated under the aliases Waifu and Judische, targeted cloud provider Snowflake to breach dozens of customers, including Ticketmaster, LendingTree, and AT&T. The scale of the theft was massive; TechCrunch reports that Moucka stole data from over 100 million AT&T customers, including texting and call records. Other stolen data included Social Security numbers, driver's license numbers, and banking information.
Beyond the ransom payouts, the DOJ notes that victims of these hacks suffered $9.5 million in total losses. Moucka also reportedly earned approximately $500,000 by selling stolen data on hacking forums, specifically naming BreachForums.
FBI special agent W. Mike Herrington described Moucka's tactics as "calculated and predatory." Austin Larsen, a senior researcher at Mandiant (a Google cybersecurity firm), previously identified Moucka as one of the most consequential hackers of 2024. Moucka was arrested in Canada in late 2024 and is scheduled for sentencing on October 27, where he faces decades in prison.