A born-again Christian who attempted to blackmail Sky out of almost £40,000 worth of Bitcoin after being fired from the broadcaster has been sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
From 2011 through 2015, Imoudu Chaba, 37, worked as a customer support representative for the channel.
The 37-year-old attempted to obtain £44,286 by hacking a former coworker’s hard drive and stealing over 11,000 client records.
Then, he threatened to publish private information comprising names and addresses on the dark web, where thieves search for possible fraud victims.
In January 2018, the individual from Baguley, Manchester, sent an anonymous letter to a senior staff member outlining his requests.
The letter stated that he had seized over one million customer records from a company’s database and threatened to disclose them on the dark web if he was not paid within the month.
After a manager left the computer unsecured and unattended, he claimed to have taken the documents.
Chaba claimed the money on the grounds that he was fired unfairly in 2015.
The bitcoin wallet to which he requested the transfer was created using an email address beginning with ‘cjack8102’, according to authorities.
In October 2019, detectives were aware of a person using the dark web alias “CJACK8102,” which led them to link the email address and username to Chaba.
He was arrested in 2020 and pled guilty to four counts of blackmail at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.
Chaba responded “no comment” to every question posed by investigators during his interview with the police.
On Wednesday, he was sentenced to two years and four months in prison.
Officers discovered a USB drive with a spreadsheet including the names and addresses of 11,400 clients, as well as a copy of the letter delivered to the senior employee, during a search of Chaba’s residence.
In addition, they discovered six other messages addressed to clients in the spreadsheet on his laptop.
Each claimed that there had been a data breach at the organization and wanted £500 to prevent further disclosure of their personal information.
Chaba sought to extort a total of £47,286 from employees and consumers.
Detective Constable Daniel Dankoff of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit of the City of London Police stated, “Chaba executed a reprehensible scheme for his own financial advantage.”
When his attempts to blackmail a senior employee failed, he turned his attention to customers in order to apply pressure on the corporation.
While Chaba employed a variety of technologies to mask his identity, this sentencing sends a strong message that we have the capability and means to locate offenders and stop their illegal behavior.