The Justice Department has indicted two Canadian nationals for allegedly running a hacking campaign in 2016 that targeted educational institutions in multiple states.
Ryan James Roach, 35, and Mathiew James Stubbings, 41, are accused of hacking into computers, stealing login credentials and using compromised devices to mine cryptocurrency. Prosecutors say the two started the campaign in June 2016 and continued until December 2019.
Roach was arrested and extradited from Canada last week. He appeared in federal court in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday. The Justice Department said it is still trying to secure Stubbings' extradition in Canadian court.
Both men face a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison on charges of conspiracy to obtain information from a protected computer and to cause damage to a protected computer, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer.
According to prosecutors, the two used virtual private servers in several European countries to carry out the attacks. They hacked educational institutions in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Massachusetts before installing cryptomining software on computers. Prosecutors said they targeted "educational institutions in the United States that had supercom