Connor Riley Moucka, the man who is accused of cyberattacks on Snowflake (SNOW) customers, will have an extradition hearing later this year after being arrested in Kitchener, Ontario, on October 30, according to Bloomberg. Authorities say he worked with others, such as John Erin Binns, to steal data from Snowflake clients by breaching customer accounts. The group allegedly extorted $2.5 million from three companies and even accessed Snowflake’s own system by using a former employee’s account.
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The cyberattacks hit companies like AT&T (T), Live Nation (LYV), and Advance Auto Parts (AAP), and exposed the personal data of millions. Canadian officials labeled Moucka as a public safety risk after citing his access to $3.5 million in cryptocurrency and online posts referencing violence. U.S. authorities were the ones that requested his arrest after suspecting he was trying to avoid extradition by seeking EU citizenship through the Czech Republic.
Interestingly, Moucka was reportedly still active in October and was attempting to re-extort a company he had already targeted. Someone who claimed responsibility for the hacks told Bloomberg News that they wanted $20 million for the stolen data, although there’s no evidence it was sold.
SNOW Stock Is Seeing New Life
Unsurprisingly, Snowflake saw its share price struggle for months following the cyberattack. However, the stock has seen some new life during the past couple of weeks following Snowflake’s strong Q3 results. This also led to a wave of analyst praise, which included Citi raising its price target to $225 from $183, along with Wedbush upgrading the stock to Outperform from Neutral with a $190 price target.
Is SNOW a Good Buy Right Now?
Overall, after a 53% increase in SNOW shares over the three months, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on SNOW stock based on 23 Buys, seven Holds, and zero Sells assigned in the past three months. In addition, the average price target of $185.58 per share implies 6.05% upside potential from current levels.
