Canadian Man Faces Extradition After Allegedly Hijacking U.S. University Supercomputer for Crypto Mining

on November 5, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Justice, Canadian national Ryan James Roach was extradited to the United States on October 28 on suspicion of hacking into university computers in the U.S. and secretly mining cryptocurrency. The extradition proceedings for his co-defendant, Mathiew James Stubbings, remain ongoing in Canada.

The indictment alleges that between June 2016 and December 2019, the two suspects targeted U.S. educational institutions equipped with supercomputers, allegedly deploying malware, stealing login credentials, and using the computing power of compromised computers for mining. The affected institutions were located in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Massachusetts. The Department of Justice noted that the charges have not yet resulted in convictions.