A 37-year-old man has been charged after at least four Edmonton businesses were hacked and Bitcoins were demanded to stop further damage.
In July 2017, a local business reported a hack to Edmonton police. The suspect allegedly infiltrated the company’s IT network, took control of their email and smartphone servers and demanded payment in the form of Bitcoins to stop any further damage.
“The network intrusions appeared to be financially motivated,” Const. Phil Hawkins with the EPS Cyber Crime Investigations Unit said. “Once the networks were accessed, the suspect targeted financial data, including online store accounts and email accounts from the companies and their employees.”
Jeffrey Johnston is facing 18 charges, including mischief, in relation to computer data, fraudulently obtaining computer service and extortion.