- A former soldier pleaded guilty to a number of accusations
- These include fraud, identity theft and conspiracy to hack organizations
- The soldier and his co-conspirators have exfiltrated and sold data from companies
The Ministry of Justice announced that a former soldier had pleaded guilty to a conspiracy in order to hack the databases of telecommunications companies, access to sensitive recordings and extract telecommunications companies by threatening to publish the stolen data unless the Rançaise is paid. ”
The 21 -year -old soldier, appointed Cameron John Wagenius, used online accounts under the pseudonym “Kiberphan0m”. Wagenius admitted to having plotted with others to defraud “at least 10” organizations by stealing connection identification information obtained via a hacking tool called SSH Brute.
Once the data is exfiltrated, the group used access to extorts victims, threatening to publish stolen data on cybercrime forums and offering data to other cybercriminals via forums. These occurred while Wagenius was actively used in the American army.
Extorted data
Some of this data have been sold successfully and would have used other fraudulent campaigns, including the exchange of SIM. The group tried to extract at least $ 1 million from their victims.
The crimes that Wagenius pleaded guilty was; Extortion concerning computer fraud, the plot to commit metal fraud and aggravated identity theft. Wagenius previously pleaded guilty separately to two heads of “illegal transfer of confidential information on the telephone recordings in relation to this conspiracy”.
Wagenius’s activity was linked to the snowflake hack in which hundreds of customers have been affected and important data have been stolen. This attack would have been financially motivated and came from a group extorting money in exchange for their stolen data.
Snowflake confirmed that the violation was the result of a successful diploma padding attack – in which a threat player had entered countless connection combinations (generally bought on the black market) until we finally operate. Diploma padding attacks are powerful and effective and have led to some of the most notable violations in recent years.
