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Today β€” 26 June 2026Main stream

Minnesota man known as β€˜Snoopy’ sentenced in DraftKings hack

By: Greg Otto
25 June 2026 at 10:19

A 21-year-old Minnesota man who operated under the online alias β€œSnoopy” was sentenced Tuesday to 18 months in federal prison for his role in a 2022 credential stuffing attack that compromised roughly 60,000 user accounts on the fantasy sports and betting platform DraftKings, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to customers.

Nathan Austad pleaded guilty in December to one count of conspiring to commit computer intrusion in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, which imposed the sentence. In addition to the prison term, Austad was ordered to serve three years of supervised release, pay over $1.3 million in restitution, and forfeit an additional $463,000.

In November 2022, Austad and his co-conspirators launched the attack against DraftKings via credential stuffing, successfully compromising approximately 60,000 accounts. In roughly 1,600 of those cases, the attackers added a new payment method under their own control to the compromised account and withdrew the available funds, stealing approximately $600,000 in total.

Access to the remaining compromised accounts was sold through cybercriminal marketplaces. Austad operated his own such shop, named after the Peanuts comic strip character Snoopy. Investigators also identified cryptocurrency accounts under Austad’s control that received approximately $465,000 in assets, including proceeds from his criminal activity.

A screenshot of the Snoopy cybercrime marketplace (Department of Justice)

Among the evidence presented in court were private messages in which Austad and his co-conspirators acknowledged that federal investigators were examining their activities even as the scheme was ongoing. In Dec. 2022, Austad wrote to a co-conspirator: β€œeveryone shouldve been prepared for this before cashing out lol.” The co-conspirator replied: β€œlol fbi can’t do s–t.” Months later, Austad wrote: β€œlike we didnt know the risk when we started lol . . . everyone knows their [sic] committing fraud.”

U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton cited those exchanges in his statement following the sentencing.

β€œThe defendants acknowledged the federal investigation into their conduct while they were committing their crimes, even having the hubris to say the FBI could not do anything about it,” Clayton said. β€œThey were wrong.”

DraftKings disclosed the breach in Nov. 2022, initially reporting that less than $300,000 had been stolen from affected customers. A month later, the company revised that figure, disclosing that 67,995 accounts had been compromised.Β 

Federal prosecutors have not officially named DraftKings in court filings, referring to the target as a β€œfantasy sports and betting website,” though the details of the attack match the breach the company disclosed publicly.

Austad is the third defendant to be sentenced in the case. Joseph Garrison received 18 months in prison in January 2024, and Kamerin Stokes, who used the alias β€œTheMFNPlug,” received 30 months in April 2026.Β 

The post Minnesota man known as β€˜Snoopy’ sentenced in DraftKings hack appeared first on CyberScoop.

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