Canadian Man Extradited to US Over Plot to Hijack University Supercomputers for Crypto

In brief

• A Canadian man has been extradited to the U.S. on charges of hacking university computers to steal login credentials and secretly mine cryptocurrency.
• Prosecutors say Ryan James Roach and Mathiew James Stubbings targeted educational institutions with supercomputers in four states between 2016 and 2019.
• The case comes as Google warns that hackers are moving from cryptojacking to hijacking access to AI models, a practice known as LLMjacking.

A Canadian man has been extradited to the United States to face charges that he helped hack into university computers to steal login credentials and secretly mine cryptocurrency, the Justice Department said on Tuesday.

A federal grand jury in the Western District of New York indicted Ryan James Roach, 35, of Saskatchewan, and Mathiew James Stubbings, 41, of Ontario, on charges of conspiracy to obtain information from and damage a protected computer, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentionally damaging a protected computer. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Between June 2016 and December 2019, the pair targeted U.S. educational institutions with supercomputers, researching security weaknesses in their networks before breaking in, according to the indictment. Once inside, they allegedly deployed malware, stole login credentials and forced the victims' computers to mine cryptocurrency for their own benefit.