US Army Soldier Pleads Guilty to Hacking and Extortion

Former Soldier Admits to Telecom Hacking and Extortion

Cameron John Wagenius, a former member of the U.S. Army, has admitted guilt in connection with hacking multiple telecommunication firms and attempting to gain financial advantage through extortion. The Department of Justice made this announcement on Tuesday.

Details of the Cybercrime

The DOJ reports that Wagenius, operating under the alias “kiberphant0m,” engaged in a conspiracy to defraud ten separate companies. This involved the theft of login information.

He employed methods such as brute force attacks and other unauthorized techniques to gain access. Stolen credentials were then shared and further attacks were planned via Telegram group conversations.

Extortion Tactics and Data Exploitation

Wagenius, alongside his associates, attempted to extort money from the compromised companies both privately and publicly. This included activity on online hacking forums, notably BreachForums.

Some of the illegally obtained data was sold, while other stolen credentials were leveraged to perpetrate additional fraudulent activities. SIM swapping was among the crimes committed using the stolen information.

Previous Guilty Plea and Ongoing Investigation

Wagenius had previously entered a guilty plea concerning hacks targeting AT&T and Verizon. This earlier breach resulted in the theft of a substantial volume of call detail records.

The current sentencing date is set for October 6th. Wagenius potentially faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, as stated in the official press release.

Connection to Snowflake Breach

Investigations have linked Wagenius to a series of cyberattacks that stemmed from a security breach affecting Snowflake, a prominent cloud computing services provider.

The case highlights the growing threat of cybercrime targeting critical infrastructure and the increasing sophistication of hacking techniques.