Canadian Man Extradited to US Over University Crypto Mining Hack

A Canadian man, Ryan James Roach, has been extradited to the United States to face charges over a scheme that hacked university computers and hijacked them to mine cryptocurrency. Roach, aged 35, was extradited on 28 October 2026 and is charged alongside Mathiew James Stubbings, 41, of Ontario.

The indictment alleges that from June 2016 to December 2019 the pair hacked into computers, stole login details and used victims’ machines to mine cryptocurrency for themselves, employing virtual private servers registered under false names to transmit malware and mining software and to store stolen credentials. Prosecutors say victims included educational institutions in New York, Tennessee, North Carolina and Massachusetts, with some affected systems located at a higher education institution in western New York.

The charges encompass conspiracy to obtain information from and damage protected computers, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentional damage to a protected computer. Each offence carries up to 10 years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000. Prosecutors allege the pair damaged at least 10 protected computers in one year and caused losses of at least $5,000.

The FBI, the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, and the Office of International Affairs coordinated the case. The DoJ notes that the case highlights universities as attractive targets due to powerful computing resources, broad networks and broad access; defenders are urged to patch promptly, monitor unusual processing load and treat credential theft as a serious incident rather than a nuisance.