Two Canadians indicted over alleged university crypto mining

A federal grand jury indicted Canadians Ryan James Roach and Mathiew James Stubbings over an alleged campaign to break into university computer networks and use compromised systems to mine cryptocurrency. Roach has been extradited to the United States, while Stubbings’s extradition proceedings remain underway in Canada, according to prosecutors. The indictment charges the men with conspiracy to obtain information from and cause damage to protected computers, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer. They have not been convicted, and the charges remain allegations. Prosecutors say the intrusions took place from June 2016 to December 2019 and affected universities in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina and Massachusetts. The institutions were targeted for access to high-performance computing systems, according to the indictment. The prosecution alleges the defendants used stolen login credentials and malware to gain access, install cryptocurrency-mining software and use university computing capacity. They also allegedly used virtual private servers registered under false identities and previously compromised computers to...