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Worcester College Student Faces Prison Time for Cyber Extortion
A 19-year-old student at Assumption University in Worcester, Massachusetts, has agreed to plead guilty to a string of cyber extortion charges. Matthew D. Lane, of Sterling, Massachusetts, faces serious prison time if convicted.
According to court filings, Lane conspired with others to extort a $200,000 ransom payment from a telecommunications company. The victim company questioned whether a ransom payment would end the threat of customer data being leaked, but Lane allegedly responded, ‘We are the only ones with a copy of this data now… Make the correct decision and pay the ransom.’
Lane also allegedly used stolen login credentials to access the computer network of a second victim company – a software and cloud storage company that served school systems in the United States, Canada and elsewhere. He allegedly caused personally identifying information (PII) of students and teachers stored on that company’s networks to be transferred to a computer server that Lane leased in Ukraine.
Later, the second victim company and others received threats that the PII of more than 60 million students and 10 million teachers – including names, email addresses, phone numbers, Social Security numbers, dates of birth, medical information, residential addresses, parent and guardian information and passwords, among other data – would be ‘leaked… worldwide’ if the company did not pay a ransom of approximately $2.85 million in Bitcoin.
Members of the public who have questions or concerns as to whether a particular student and/or teacher’s information was compromised should contact their local school district.
U.S. Attorney Leah B. Foley called cyber extortion a ‘serious attack on our economy and on all of us.’ ‘As alleged, this defendant stole private information about millions of children and teachers, imposed substantial financial costs on his victims, and instilled fear in parents that their kids’ information had been leaked into the hands of criminals – all to put a notch in his hacking belt,’ Foley said.
The charges of cyber extortion conspiracy, cyber extortion and unauthorized access to protected computers each provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss, whichever is greater. The charge of aggravated identity theft provides for a mandatory sentence of two years in prison, consecutive to any sentence imposed on the computer fraud charges.
FBI Acting Special Agent in Charge Kimberly Milka called the alleged scheme a ‘serious consequence’ that highlights the FBI’s ongoing commitment to bringing cyber criminals to justice.
Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Category: Cybercrime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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