U.S. Military soldier Cameron John Wagenius, 20, has been arrested and charged with unlawfully transferring confidential cellphone data.
Federal authorities accuse the younger soldier of taking part in a cybercriminal ring that bought delicate information, together with alleged cellphone data of President-elect Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, on the black market.
The indictment, unsealed this week, reveals two counts of illegal switch of confidential cellphone data filed in opposition to Wagenius, in response to KrebsonSecurity.
The costs observe a December 20 arrest close to Fort Hood, Texas, a base related to Fort Cavazos the place Wagenius was stationed.
Wagenius, described by his mom as a tech-savvy soldier, labored on community communications at an Military base in South Korea earlier than returning stateside.
His mom, Alicia Roen, advised cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs, “I by no means was conscious he was into hacking. It was positively a shock to me once we discovered these items out.”
In a remark to Krebs web site, Mrs. Roen wrote, “I’m his mom and I’m not an open ebook, I used to be requested common questions on my sons age and if he was a solider! That’s all I mentioned and Krebs already had this info. I by no means knew my son was concerned in any of this or concerned with others till I learn Krebs 1st article following my sons arrest, which was all new information to me! Do you actually assume a baby would ever inform his dad and mom he was concerned in felony exercise?”
Working below the web alias “Kiberphant0m,” Wagenius is accused of taking part in a number of high-profile information breaches. He allegedly bought confidential cellphone data on on-line boards in November, claiming to have hacked 15 telecommunications companies, together with AT&T and Verizon.
In November, “Kiberphant0m” posted what had been presupposed to be AT&T name logs for President-elect Trump and Vice President Harris, although the authenticity of those data has not been confirmed.
The arrest follows an investigation right into a collection of knowledge breaches affecting quite a few organizations. Wagenius’s alleged accomplices embody Canadian nationwide Connor Riley Moucka, identified on-line as “Judische,” who was arrested in late October, and John Binns, presently detained in Turkey.
These people are suspected of involvement within the theft and extortion of knowledge from clients of the cloud service Snowflake, amongst different targets.
Extra on KrebsonSecurity:
Allison Nixon, chief analysis officer on the New York-based cybersecurity agency Unit 221B, helped monitor down Kiberphant0m’s actual life identification. Nixon was amongst a number of safety researchers who confronted harassment and particular threats of violence from Judische and his associates.
“Anonymously extorting the President and VP as a member of the navy is a nasty concept, nevertheless it’s an excellent worse concept to harass individuals who focus on de-anonymizing cybercriminals,” Nixon advised KrebsOnSecurity. She mentioned the investigation into Kiberphant0m exhibits that regulation enforcement is getting higher and quicker at going after cybercriminals — particularly those that are literally dwelling in the US.
“Between once we, and an nameless colleague, discovered his opsec mistake on November tenth to his final Telegram exercise on December 6, regulation enforcement set the pace document for the quickest turnaround time for an American federal cyber case that I’ve witnessed in my profession,” she mentioned.
Nixon requested to share a message for all the opposite Kiberphant0ms on the market who assume they’ll’t be discovered and arrested.
“I do know that younger folks concerned in cybercrime will learn these articles,” Nixon mentioned. “You could cease doing silly shit and get a lawyer. Regulation enforcement desires to place all of you in jail for a very long time.”
The indictment in opposition to Wagenius was filed in Texas, however the case has been transferred to the U.S. District Court docket for the Western District of Washington in Seattle.
Learn the indictment:
