A man from Kitchener, Ont. has pleaded guilty to being part of a massive international data breach involving “extremely sensitive information.” On Aug. 5, the United States Department of Justice announced 26-year-old Connor Moucka, also known as Alexander Moucka, had pleaded guilty following his arrest in Kitchener in October 2024. He was extradited to the United States in July 2025. “Connor Moucka hacked over 150 companies and organizations, obtained extremely sensitive information, and extorted the victims for millions of dollars,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, from the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, said in a news release. While no companies were specifically named in court documents previously obtained by CTV News, experts said the details matched a hack involving customers of Snowflake, a cloud-based data storage company based in the U.S. AT&T, Live Nation, Ticketmaster and Advance Auto Parts were among the companies that admitted they were affected by the Snowflake breach. Moucka pleaded guilty to computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and a related conspiracy. He will be sentenced on Oct. 27. He faces between two and 30 years in prison. What was taken? The U.S. Department of Justice said Moucka and co-conspirators used stolen login details to compromise cloud-hosted data belonging to at least 165 companies and organizations between February and October 2024. Some of the information taken included non-content call and text history, banking details, payroll records, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) registration numbers, driver’s licence numbers, passport numbers and social security numbers. Those details were then used in an extortion scheme where the perpetrators threatened to publish the information if their victims didn’t comply with their demands. “The conspirators profited from the scheme, receiving over $2.5 million in ransom payments,” the news release said. “In at least one instance, Moucka re-extorted a victim with threats of further disclosure of the victim’s stolen data. Moucka used the stolen data of a government officer and members of a then-former government officer’s immediate family in this re-extortion attempt.” The Department of Justice also said Moucka sold information on cybercrime forums and personally received at least $495,000 in payments. Meanwhile, the companies affected reported more than $9.6 million in losses. “Today’s guilty plea sends a clear message to cybercriminals: you cannot hide from justice, no matter how hard you may try to cover your tracks,” said W. Mike Herrington, the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Seattle field office. “Connor Moucka’s threats and re-extortion tactics were calculated and predatory, and his actions did real harm to his victims, be they companies targeted for theft and extortion or the millions of everyday people who are their customers.” With files from CTV News’ Krista Simpson
