Connor Riley Moucka, 26, of Kitchener, Ontario, pleaded guilty in Seattle federal court to computer fraud, wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and conspiracy charges stemming from the 2024 Snowflake breaches. His attacks compromised at least 165 organizations and exposed records of at least 100 million individuals.

Moucka exploited stolen credentials to access Snowflake customer accounts without authorization. He extracted sensitive data and extorted targeted companies for payment. Court records indicate Moucka personally obtained at least $495,000 from these criminal activities.

The 2024 Snowflake campaign represented one of the year's largest data exposure incidents. Affected organizations spanned multiple sectors including healthcare, finance, retail, and technology. The scale of compromised records forced thousands of companies to assess customer data exposure and notify affected individuals.

Moucka's arrest followed law enforcement collaboration between U.S. authorities and Canadian counterparts. Investigators traced the intrusions to his control of multiple compromised accounts and his use of specific tools and techniques to maintain access across victim networks.

The guilty plea resolves federal charges carrying substantial prison time. Sentencing remains pending. Court filings referenced cooperation from Snowflake and victim organizations that identified suspicious account access patterns, which enabled investigators to attribute the attacks.

The Snowflake breaches exposed critical gaps in credential security practices. Many victims had not enforced multi-factor authentication or implemented basic account monitoring. Snowflake subsequently recommended organizations audit all API integrations and API keys, reset credentials for inactive service accounts, and enable MFA across all user accounts.

This case demonstrates how attackers leverage stolen or weak credentials to breach major cloud platforms serving hundreds of organizations simultaneously. A single compromised credential chain can expose millions of records across dozens of sectors. Organizations relying on Snowflake or