Federal authorities have charged a 30-year old Minnesota man with extortion, among other offenses, after he illegally streamed content from major professional sports leagues online and then threatened to expose vulnerabilities in Major League Baseball's internet infrastructure, according to a report by the Associated Press.
Joshua Streit of St. Louis Park, Minn. was charged in a criminal complaint filed in a Manhattan federal court with extortion, accessing a protected computer to commit fraud for personal gain, wire fraud and illicit digital transmission. According to authorities, Streit hacked into the computer systems of Major League Baseball as well as the NFL, NBA, and NHL in order to stream live games online.
He then attempted to extort $150,000 from MLB through threats to publicize the league's digital vulnerabilities.
Streit's method was to use the login credentials of legitimate users of league websites in order to access live feeds, which he then streamed through a website that he operated. All four leagues aided an investigation into Streit's activities, which spanned from 2017 until August of 2021.
One league claimed that Streit's streaming had cost them $3 million.
"Instead of quitting while he was ahead, he allegedly decided to continue the game by extorting one of the leagues, threatening to expose the very vulnerability he used to hack them," read a statement by Michael J. Driscoll, head of New York's FBI office. "The puns write themselves in this investigation, and now instead of scoring a payday, Mr. Brody faces a federal prison sentence as a penalty."
The Associated Press' report did not specify the length of a prison sentence that Streit faces if convicted. At publishing time, it was also not clear who would represent Streit at an initial appearance in a Minnesota federal court.
