Wired reported this week that a 19-year-old working for Elon Musk‘s so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was given access to sensitive US government systems even though his past association with cybercrime communities should have precluded him from gaining the necessary security clearances to do so. As today’s story explores, the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration.
Since President Trump’s second inauguration, Musk’s DOGE team has gained access to a truly staggering amount of personal and sensitive data on American citizens, moving quickly to seize control over databases at the U.S. Treasury, the Office of Personnel Management, the Department of Education, and the Department of Health and Human Resources, among others.
Wired first reported on Feb. 2 that one of the technologists on Musk’s crew is a 19-year-old high school graduate named Edward Coristine, who reportedly goes by the nickname “Big Balls” online. One of the companies Coristine founded, Tesla.Sexy LLC, was set up in 2021, when he would have been around 16 years old.
“Tesla.Sexy LLC controls dozens of web domains, including at least two Russian-registered domains,” Wired reported. “One of those domains, which is still active, offers a service called Helfie, which is an AI bot for Discord servers targeting the Russian market. While the operation of a Russian website would not violate US sanctions preventing Americans doing business with Russian companies, it could potentially be a factor in a security clearance review.”
Mr. Coristine has not responded to requests for comment. In a follow-up story this week, Wired found that someone using a Telegram handle tied to Coristine solicited a DDoS-for-hire service in 2022, and that he worked for a short time at a company that specializes in protecting customers from DDoS attacks.
A profile photo from Coristine’s WhatsApp account.
Internet routing records show that Coristine runs an Internet service provider called Packetware (AS400495). Also known as “DiamondCDN,” Packetware currently hosts tesla[.]sexy and diamondcdn[.]com, among other domains.
DiamondCDN was advertised and claimed by someone who used the nickname “Rivage” on several Com-based Discord channels over the years. A review of chat logs from some of those channels show other members frequently referred to Rivage as “Edward.”
From late 2020 to late 2024, Rivage’s conversations would show up in multiple Com chat servers that are closely monitored by security companies. In November 2022, Rivage could be seen requesting recommendations for a reliable and powerful DDoS-for-hire service.
Rivage made that request in the cybercrime channel “Dstat,” a core Com hub where users could buy and sell attack services. Dstat’s website dstat[.]cc was seized in 2024 as part of “Operation PowerOFF,” an international law enforcement action against DDoS services.
Coristine’s LinkedIn profile said that in 2022 he worked at an anti-DDoS company called Path Networks, which Wired generously described as a “network monitoring firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers.” Wired wrote:
“At Path Network, Coristine worked as a systems engineer from April to June of 2022, according to his now-deleted LinkedIn résumé. Path has at times listed as employees Eric Taylor, also known as Cosmo the God, a well-known former cybercriminal and member of the hacker group UGNazis, as well as Matthew Flannery, an Australian convicted hacker whom police allege was a member of the hacker group LulzSec. It’s unclear whether Coristine worked at Path concurrently with those hackers, and WIRED found no evidence that either Coristine or other Path employees engaged in illegal activity while at the company.”
The founder of Path is a young man named Marshal Webb. I wrote about Webb back in 2016, in a story about a DDoS defense company he co-founded called BackConnect Security LLC. On September 20, 2016, KrebsOnSecurity published data showing that the company had a history of hijacking Internet address space that belonged to others.
Less than 24 hours after that story ran, KrebsOnSecurity.com was hit with the biggest DDoS attack the Internet had ever seen at the time. That sustained attack kept this site offline for nearly 4 days.
The other founder of BackConnect Security LLC was Tucker Preston, a Georgia man who pleaded guilty in 2020 to paying a DDoS-for-hire service to launch attacks against others.
The aforementioned Path employee Eric Taylor pleaded guilty in 2017 to charges including an attack on our home in 2013. Taylor was among several men involved in making a false report to my local police department about a supposed hostage situation at our residence in Virginia. In response, a heavily-armed police force surrounded my home and put me in handcuffs at gunpoint before the police realized it was all a dangerous hoax known as “swatting.”
CosmoTheGod rocketed to Internet infamy in 2013 when he and a number of other hackers set up the Web site exposed[dot]su, which “doxed” dozens of public officials and celebrities by publishing the address, Social Security numbers and other personal information on the former First Lady Michelle Obama, the then-director of the FBI and the U.S. attorney general, among others. The group also swatted many of the people they doxed.
Wired noted that Coristine only worked at Path for a few months in 2022, but the story didn’t mention why his tenure was so short. A screenshot shared on the website pathtruths.com includes a snippet of conversations in June 2022 between Path employees discussing Coristine’s firing.
According to that record, Path founder Marshal Webb dismissed Coristine for leaking internal documents to a competitor. Not long after Coristine’s termination, someone leaked an abundance of internal Path documents and conversations. Among other things, those chats revealed that one of Path’s technicians was a Canadian man named Curtis Gervais who was convicted in 2017 of perpetrating dozens of swatting attacks and fake bomb threats — including at least two attempts against our home in 2014.
A snippet of text from an internal Path chat room, wherein members discuss the reason for Coristine’s termination: Allegedly, leaking internal company information. Source: Pathtruths.com.
On May 11, 2024, Rivage posted on a Discord channel for a DDoS protection service that is chiefly marketed to members of The Com. Rivage expressed frustration with his time spent on Com-based communities, suggesting that its profitability had been oversold.
“I don’t think there’s a lot of money to be made in the com,” Rivage lamented. “I’m not buying Heztner [servers] to set up some com VPN.”
Rivage largely stopped posting messages on Com channels after that. Wired reports that Coristine subsequently spent three months last summer working at Neuralink, Elon Musk’s brain implant startup.
The trouble with all this is that even if someone sincerely intends to exit The Com after years of consorting with cybercriminals, they are often still subject to personal attacks, harassment and hacking long after they have left the scene.
That’s because a huge part of Com culture involves harassing, swatting and hacking other members of the community. These internecine attacks are often for financial gain, but just as frequently they are perpetrated by cybercrime groups to exact retribution from or assert dominance over rival gangs.
Experts say it is extremely difficult for former members of violent street gangs to gain a security clearance needed to view sensitive or classified information held by the U.S. government. That’s because ex-gang members are highly susceptible to extortion and coercion from current members of the same gang, and that alone presents an unacceptable security risk for intelligence agencies.
And make no mistake: The Com is the English-language cybercriminal hacking equivalent of a violent street gang. KrebsOnSecurity has published numerous stories detailing how feuds within the community periodically spill over into real-world violence.
When Coristine’s name surfaced in Wired‘s report this week, members of The Com immediately took notice. In the following segment from a February 5, 2025 chat in a Com-affiliated hosting provider, members criticized Rivage’s skills, and discussed harassing his family and notifying authorities about incriminating accusations that may or may not be true.
2025-02-05 16:29:44 UTC vperked#0 they got this nigga on indiatimes man
2025-02-05 16:29:46 UTC alexaloo#0 Their cropping is worse than AI could have done
2025-02-05 16:29:48 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro who is that
2025-02-05 16:29:53 UTC hebeatsme#0 yalla re talking about
2025-02-05 16:29:56 UTC xewdy#0 edward
2025-02-05 16:29:56 UTC .yarrb#0 rivagew
2025-02-05 16:29:57 UTC vperked#0 Rivarge
2025-02-05 16:29:57 UTC xewdy#0 diamondcdm
2025-02-05 16:29:59 UTC vperked#0 i cant spell it
2025-02-05 16:30:00 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage
2025-02-05 16:30:08 UTC .yarrb#0 yes
2025-02-05 16:30:14 UTC hebeatsme#0 i have him added
2025-02-05 16:30:20 UTC hebeatsme#0 hes on discord still
2025-02-05 16:30:47 UTC .yarrb#0 hes focused on stroking zaddy elon
2025-02-05 16:30:47 UTC vperked#0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Coristine
2025-02-05 16:30:50 UTC vperked#0 no fucking way
2025-02-05 16:30:53 UTC vperked#0 they even made a wiki for him
2025-02-05 16:30:55 UTC vperked#0 LOOOL
2025-02-05 16:31:05 UTC hebeatsme#0 no way
2025-02-05 16:31:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 hes not a good dev either
2025-02-05 16:31:14 UTC hebeatsme#0 like????
2025-02-05 16:31:22 UTC hebeatsme#0 has to be fake
2025-02-05 16:31:24 UTC xewdy#0 and theyre saying ts
2025-02-05 16:31:29 UTC xewdy#0 like ok bro
2025-02-05 16:31:51 UTC .yarrb#0 now i wanna know what all the other devs are like…
2025-02-05 16:32:00 UTC vperked#0 “`Coristine used the moniker “bigballs” on LinkedIn and @Edwardbigballer on Twitter, according to The Daily Dot.[“`
2025-02-05 16:32:05 UTC vperked#0 LOL
2025-02-05 16:32:06 UTC hebeatsme#0 lmfaooo
2025-02-05 16:32:07 UTC vperked#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:32:10 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:32:17 UTC hebeatsme#0 has to be fake right
2025-02-05 16:32:22 UTC .yarrb#0 does it mention Rivage?
2025-02-05 16:32:23 UTC xewdy#0 He previously worked for NeuraLink, a brain computer interface company led by Elon Musk
2025-02-05 16:32:26 UTC xewdy#0 bro what
2025-02-05 16:32:27 UTC alexaloo#0 I think your current occupation gives you a good insight of what probably goes on
2025-02-05 16:32:29 UTC hebeatsme#0 bullshit man
2025-02-05 16:32:33 UTC xewdy#0 this nigga got hella secrets
2025-02-05 16:32:37 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage couldnt print hello world
2025-02-05 16:32:42 UTC hebeatsme#0 if his life was on the line
2025-02-05 16:32:50 UTC xewdy#0 nigga worked for neuralink
2025-02-05 16:32:54 UTC hebeatsme#0 bullshit
2025-02-05 16:33:06 UTC Nashville Dispatch ##0000 ||@PD Ping||
2025-02-05 16:33:07 UTC hebeatsme#0 must have killed all those test pigs with some bugs
2025-02-05 16:33:24 UTC hebeatsme#0 ur telling me the rivage who failed to start a company
2025-02-05 16:33:28 UTC hebeatsme#0 https://cdn.camp
2025-02-05 16:33:32 UTC hebeatsme#0 who didnt pay for servers
2025-02-05 16:33:34 UTC hebeatsme#0 ?
2025-02-05 16:33:42 UTC hebeatsme#0 was too cheap
2025-02-05 16:33:44 UTC vperked#0 yes
2025-02-05 16:33:50 UTC hebeatsme#0 like??
2025-02-05 16:33:53 UTC hebeatsme#0 it aint adding up
2025-02-05 16:33:56 UTC alexaloo#0 He just needed to find his calling idiot.
2025-02-05 16:33:58 UTC alexaloo#0 He found it.
2025-02-05 16:33:59 UTC hebeatsme#0 bro
2025-02-05 16:34:01 UTC alexaloo#0 Cope in a river dude
2025-02-05 16:34:04 UTC hebeatsme#0 he cant make good money right
2025-02-05 16:34:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 doge is about efficiency
2025-02-05 16:34:11 UTC hebeatsme#0 he should make $1/he
2025-02-05 16:34:15 UTC hebeatsme#0 $1/hr
2025-02-05 16:34:25 UTC hebeatsme#0 and be whipped for better code
2025-02-05 16:34:26 UTC vperked#0 prolly makes more than us
2025-02-05 16:34:35 UTC vperked#0 with his dad too
2025-02-05 16:34:52 UTC hebeatsme#0 time to report him for fraud
2025-02-05 16:34:54 UTC hebeatsme#0 to donald trump
2025-02-05 16:35:04 UTC hebeatsme#0 rivage participated in sim swap hacks in 2018
2025-02-05 16:35:08 UTC hebeatsme#0 put that on his wiki
2025-02-05 16:35:10 UTC hebeatsme#0 thanks
2025-02-05 16:35:15 UTC hebeatsme#0 and in 2021
2025-02-05 16:35:17 UTC hebeatsme#0 thanks
2025-02-05 16:35:19 UTC chainofcommand#0 i dont think they’ll care tbh
Given the speed with which Musk’s DOGE team was allowed access to such critical government databases, it strains credulity that Coristine could have been properly cleared beforehand. After all, he’d recently been dismissed from a job for allegedly leaking internal company information to outsiders.
According to the national security adjudication guidelines (PDF) released by the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), eligibility determinations take into account a person’s stability, trustworthiness, reliability, discretion, character, honesty, judgment, and ability to protect classified information.
The DNI policy further states that “eligibility for covered individuals shall be granted only when facts and circumstances indicate that eligibility is clearly consistent with the national security interests of the United States, and any doubt shall be resolved in favor of national security.”
On Thursday, 25-year-old DOGE staff member Marko Elez resigned after being linked to a deleted social media account that advocated racism and eugenics. Elez resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked the White House about his connection to the account.
“Just for the record, I was racist before it was cool,” the account posted in July. “You could not pay me to marry outside of my ethnicity,” the account wrote on X in September. “Normalize Indian hate,” the account wrote the same month, in reference to a post noting the prevalence of people from India in Silicon Valley.
Elez’s resignation came a day after the Department of Justice agreed to limit the number of DOGE employees who have access to federal payment systems. The DOJ said access would be limited to two people, Elez and Tom Krause, the CEO of a company called Cloud Software Group.
Earlier today, Musk said he planned to rehire Elez after President Trump and Vice President JD Vance reportedly endorsed the idea. Speaking at The White House today, Trump said he wasn’t concerned about the security of personal information and other data accessed by DOGE, adding that he was “very proud of the job that this group of young people” are doing.
A White House official told Reuters on Wednesday that Musk and his engineers have appropriate security clearances and are operating in “full compliance with federal law, appropriate security clearances, and as employees of the relevant agencies, not as outside advisors or entities.”
NPR reports Trump added that his administration’s cost-cutting efforts would soon turn to the Education Department and the Pentagon, “where he suggested without evidence that there could be ‘trillions’ of dollars in wasted spending within the $6.75 trillion the federal government spent in fiscal year 2024.”
GOP leaders in the Republican-controlled House and Senate have largely shrugged about Musk’s ongoing efforts to seize control over federal databases, dismantle agencies mandated by Congress, freeze federal spending on a range of already-appropriated government programs, and threaten workers with layoffs.
Meanwhile, multiple parties have sued to stop DOGE’s activities. ABC News says a federal judge was to rule today on whether DOGE should be blocked from accessing Department of Labor records, following a lawsuit alleging Musk’s team sought to illegally access highly sensitive data, including medical information, from the federal government.
At least 13 state attorneys general say they plan to file a lawsuit to stop DOGE from accessing federal payment systems containing Americans’ sensitive personal information, reports The Associated Press.
Reuters reported Thursday that the U.S. Treasury Department had agreed not to give Musk’s team access to its payment systems while a judge is hearing arguments in a lawsuit by employee unions and retirees alleging Musk illegally searched those records.
Ars Technica writes that The Department of Education (DoE) was sued Friday by a California student association demanding an “immediate stop” to DOGE’s “unlawfully” digging through student loan data to potentially dismantle the DoE.
Aside from screaming at our Congress, what can we to stop the biggest security breach in American history?
A word to the wise is look to the periodic table for help. In the rows and columns created by Mr. Mendeleev your helper can be found. Leon is trying to unemployed two million plus Americans through no fault of their own, while also getting his despicable fingers into the knickers of tens of millions more. Methinks somebody is going to FA & FO, IMHO. This is America, LOL!
Folks, did you actually vote for a guy with the NAZI salute?
We can’t. All we can do is pray the courts do their duty to this country and enforce the checks and balances that have preserved our Republic’s constitutional order for 250 years. DOGE as it stands is an unelected, unaccountable 4th branch of government with no checks on its power. If the courts affirm their power to do anything they wish, Congress and the courts will be powerless. At that point, just put on the armband and pray they don’t find you out.
Neither is the DMV while government searches are in violation of your privacy rights.
DMV is plenty Constitutional. What?
We had our chance last 11/5 to stop all this from happening. Despite the turmoils of 2016-20, just too many of us didn’t learn or couldn’t be bothered. So here we are.
I think our votes disappeared into a hacker void. None of this seems legit. None of it.
Which threat are you referring to?
The Deep State threat or the threat to the Deep State?
As for “but security”, puh-lease. Starting from OPM and going downwards – the notion of US government employees as being secure is laughable. Literally laugh out loud-able.
If you actually think there’s such a thing as the Deep State, tell your doctor to adjust your meds. It’s just a conspiracy theory.
I mean, there is… it’s the lobbyists in DC. K street, J street… that’s the deep state.
Time to tell your doctor to adjust your meds!
“Ask your grandfather for a new joke book for Christmas.”
and other smooth-brained replies to follow, numbskull.
I worked in the administration of President George H.W. Bush. I was an assistant secretary in the U.S. Separtment of Education. I can state without hesitation that there is no “deep state.” It’s a conspiracy theory created to sow fear and hate, to persuade Americans to believe the worst about their own government. This is not “patriotic.” Trump and Musk are in the midst of destroying the federal government. People are being fired without regard to their history or knowledge. FWIW, I don’t believe Trump won in 2024. Something happened to rig the outcome. American voters can’t be that stupid.
Sure, there’s a conspiracy theory implying that there’s a “secret shadow government” that does “everything” behind the scenes, yes. That doesn’t mean there are no long-term un-elected lobbyists in DC who actually do have their hands on the levers of government, because there are, and they are well compensated for their positions with very little oversight due to their connections. I would call that the actual “deep” state. Military contractors, certain law firms, certain major corporations, industry coalitions, it’s actually a very long list. I’m pretty sure there’s some waste and corruption there – which is not where Trump/Musk are looking or attempting to audit, obviously. “Trump and Musk are in the midst of destroying the federal government.” – Granted. “People are being fired without regard to their history or knowledge.” – Granted. These things are true at the same time.
“American voters can’t be that stupid.”
Now that’s truly funny!
same. of course they cheated, they don’t hesitate to lie, cheat, or steal because they are invincible. All three branches of US Government in the hands of white supremacist billioniares and church whackados.
The only ‘Deep State’ is the billionaires manipulating laws for their infinite greed and power. Imagine being so caught up in the Nazi billionaire propaganda about the boogeyman of some unpaid civil servant working in a decaying building causing on the world problems, while worshiping at the feet of people pushing to become trillionaires under a wage slave army.
The brain rot of propaganda runs deep in this country, never seen so many people willing to bend over and take it because a billionaire told them to.
You think the DC Swamp and their lobbyists love the GOP? Think again! The ULA (Boeing and Lockheed-Martin) and launches on GTO/national security space launch until Falcon Heavy came along. Now Bezos’ Blue Origin has joined the fray, and the US Media and the DC Swamp are treating them like they did SpaceX, even though the US taxpayer has spent far, far more on the ULA, let alone NASA cost-plus contractors.
This is literaly how the left, with the US Media and DC Swamp, have discredited themselves. Enough people work in these industries, and the second the left, the US Media or DC Swamp opens their mouths and tries to treat us like we don’t work in these industries, and see the waste — and it’s not SpaceX or Blue Origin — we literally go, “Really? So you don’t know how this works! Clearly!”
This is why 70% of Americans approve of how DOGE is operating.
Do you want to try that again, this time with coherent thought?
I worked as an engineer in a Fortune 50 company who is one the government’s biggest private contractors. To pretend private industry doesn’t have ‘waste’ is laughable. Only you’re dealing with the overhead of paying the rich investors, C-suite, and SVP/AVPs gigantic compensation packages to sit on Zoom calls and opine about things with whatever the newest corporate or tech buzzword is without even understanding the fundamentals of their own business. AI! Cloud! Automation! Then efficiency ‘cuts’ or a reorg every two months because they have to exert power in the vacuum of their lack of knowledge and skill and have nothing else to do.
Then they’ll go and spend six and seven figure contracts for consulting firms to ‘figure it all out’ – by going to the company’s own engineers and asking them and prettying it up in an Excel or Powerpoint. There’s no biggest waste in the US Economy than the funds leeched off by the business class chain of command.
For a rant on an article on a security blog this is one of the most true statements I’ve ever read about what corporate America is really like.
The latest polls actually show only ~55% of Americans support Elon running Doge, and only 49% approve of the job he’s doing vs 44% disapproving. Need the link to Rasmussen? Polling was from Feb 9th.
If you have to lie to make your case and claim 70%, that’s actually worse than just inventing the number because you like round, semi-plausible numbers and you don’t care to be correct.
Either way, wrong.
Tell me you don’t know how government works without telling me you don’t know how government works.
Dumbass.
I work for the feds and was a vendor for the VA, my PII was hacked from both systems plus one more triple letter agency that made its breach TLP yellow. I feel more secure now because I know govt employees whose job is PMPAAC, protect my pension at all costs, will be forced to comply with the law or get booted out.
When the president was asked about the Creating Government That Works Better and Costs Less report he said “I’ve read it, and where it says the president should, the president will”
That was Bill Clinton in 1997.
https://x.com/RepEricBurlison/status/1889708544380834139
Curtis “gervais” and Peter “potvin ” – Yarvin & Thiel? They code.. sound out those names ..
“Potvin” – remove the V, sounds like …
“Peter Pan” hence P.P.
Any college kid can apply for and get an internship at a Silicon Valley, Berkeley EECS two terms is not hard to get internship . Anyone making eyes at the boss and can talk their mouths off can get theses roles. They are brainless stooges with USB drives.
Curtis “gervais” and Peter “potvin ” – Yarvin & Thiel? They code.. sound out those names ..
“Potvin” – remove the V, sounds like …
“Peter Pan” hence P.P.
Any college kid can apply for and get an internship at a Silicon Valley, Berkeley EECS two terms is not hard to get internship . Anyone making eyes at the boss and can talk their mouths off can get theses roles. They are brainless stooges with USB drives.
Imagine that? When a felon runs the roost, y’all are not going to be seeing the days of Camelot, I bet. What did America expect?
https://cyberintel.substack.com/p/doge-exposes-once-secret-government
Brian, have you read this article? The information here is well cited and quite possibly correct. If it is, your job now is about to become infinitesimally more complex. Forget the phishers and scammers my friend, nation state intrusions are going to increase dramatically. Leon and his corporate cowboys have just handed the keys to the Kingdom to Xi and Putin with their ‘Go fast, break things’ attitude. Good luck.
Leon, lol. Is that black Elon?
I’d like to say it my dyslexia was playing up again but it wasn’t, it was deliberate. 😉
Leon The Fool.
The always credible substack.com journalism guarantee, ladies and latent germs.
Is this the same individual that this administration said was forgiven? Once the information is tapped into by any means concerning technology, especially computer-based stored information, whether it be sensitive to military or private citizens, it can not be restored; it is out there to be used in whatever manner by whomever, and the information can never be locked… It is out there for possible further harm to the private citizen. Is the government just going to say sorry to that citizen, and the government goes on to a new day, and the citizen is left with the current damage and possible future damage to occur that can destroy them financially and possibly physically if concerning medical insurance? And the list of harms can be astounding.
I think it is a very important that people inform themselves on what Elon’s plan is here in dismantling the US government to usher in an era of techno-feudalism. Look up dark enlightenment and network states.
Look how many willing billionaire submissives there are commenting on stories like this to defend cult leaders like Musk and Trump. They’re gladly get trampled on and plug themselves into The Elon Matrix to be a subservient beta cuck for them. They don’t care, their brains are more fried on rage propaganda than RFK Jr.
Don’t worry. You can always put the black mail networks and money laundering schemes back together after your CIA cut out president gets “elected” in 2028.
Interesting hateful comments are starting to appear in this forum regarding Leon and his cohort.
Let me put it this way, given the way the laws of the USA are written, any one or all of you might be guilty of at least 1 to 5 crimes each day; how many are felonies depends upon the crime.
While i do not agree with the quality of some of the DOGE staff selected by Leon, I fully agree with him audit ALL THE DETAILS and LOOK AT EVERY EXPENDITURE approach. When it comes to finding actual fraud, waste, and abuse there can be NO BUTS ALLOWED. Everything must be examined or else the investigation is just another SWAMP SHAM like the J6 Committee and the purported Russian Dossier on Trump.
It’s as if they all dragged out their “Resist!” “Not my President!” t shirts and bumper stickers from 2016. Where have they been for he past four years of an unelected cabal running the country and genociding brown people in the Middle East? Now they want to complain about supposedly being concerned about data breaches? This, after being a-ok with the FBI and Silicon Valley working hand in glove to suppress news during an election cycle (NY Post story on the Hunter laptop) and suppress actual science while demanding we trust “the science” of their vaxtardation approach to public health mandates.
I welcome this kid – hope he shakes things up and finds out who’s paying the pipers.
They aren’t “looking at all the details”. They are literally shutting down entire agencies without a thought because they hurt elmo’s feelings. 11 of the 12 “USAID Programs” they cited weren’t even USAID, all 12 were mischaracterized, and several they included private donations in the cost they quoted. This is a thorough gutting of the US government, not a measured detailed audit.
Annoyingly, journalists can’t stick with a single definition for “The Com” and opt to make it sound like it’s a single telegram channel with every single cybercriminal.
It’s quite literally slang / shortened for “community”. There is no single “Com” just as there is no single community for videogames. The same “com” mentioned in those chats doesn’t necessarily mean “the sim swapping community”.
Also, the current CTO of Path is apparently also a former cybercriminal (the “defacing websites for lulz” kind, not the “ransomware a children’s hospital”). You can find it all yourself by just googling path networks corey and reading all the threads about him.
its like gangs
No, there’s a specific “com” community, nice try though. Just because you don’t know every member doesn’t mean there’s not an explicit list that people in the know refer to, thanks though notably plausible rubes.
Brian, Thank you for this article and for all your other work exposing malicious activities. You have great courage, despite the costs to you and your family. You are a soldier of truth and I thank you for your service.
This used to be a useful forum now but the democrat butthurt on display has ruined it for me. Your side lost, failed to even come close. You got lotsa work to do in your own house but the tantrums go on. 2028 arrives I am sure you will still have nothing to offer.
You clearly did not read the article at all.
You are an idiot if you think krebs exposed all this info because of “democrat butthurt”
“This used to be a useful forum now but the democrat butthurt on display has ruined it for me.”
Facts are tough for the wanna-seem-tough to swallow.
this is the response from nearly everyone on the right. The only “truth” comes from the social media accounts of their fearless leaders. No one else qualifies. Objective facts are ignored. Fraud is what Trump and Must tell us, no evidence needed. It really is sad and it’s no accident. Trump and team have been setting the stage for this for years.
” setting the stage for years,” This is what I find most disturbing & infuriating . It was clear as day & ignored be it ignorance or intent
Facts don’t care about your feelings
I wouldn’t have to look for info about these kids hacking into my data if the media were educating me on who these kids are. To know this kid with criminal intent is anywhere near out nuclear codes is disgraceful. We know trump is transactional and likes to be positioned with leverage. This is invaluable to our enemies. And clearly trump is the enemy.
Every country deserves the goverment it elected.
THIS IS IT.
Landed here from hackernews. The post attract a lot of inflammatory debate there. I understand that. I thank you for your great effort on writing this and giving me the whole picture of the incident.
so glad my time on this rock is ending. everything sucks, only ever gets worse. not worth the effort to breath.
I mean, that’s a take.
Take
based.
I used to enjoy reading the nonpolitical nature of the comments as they used to be. Often times, the background information or new information gained was useful. Please, leave your political onions to yourself and concentrate on security – after all this is krebsonSECURITY.com
And yet, here you are. Bye.
It’s KREBS on security, not GARY.
“Gary on security, I like the sound of that.” So go start your own apolitical security talk anytime holmes.
Great comment.
Facts are presented but folks are showing their political leaning ! This is how our logic and reasoning are being affected by the current state of the country. So sad
“Facts are presented but folks are showing their political leaning !” -(Oh no! It’s anarchy!)
Folks have political leanings for reasons both factual and otherwise. Facts are presented.
The current political divide is a result of the previous political divide, under new management,
and I think people realize there was/is a deliberate MAGA strategy pushed by media outlets
that exist only for that polarizing purpose to gaslight. But it’s been like this for a while really.
I don’t think you could say it’s altogether ‘that’ different from the 1950’s-60’s-70’s eras.
There was polarization and bias and corruption back then too, if you recall back that far.
Nixon played football, Trump plays golf. Authoritarian simps, frauds, leaks, traitors, all.
We’ve been here before. But it’s depressing to repeat history without learning much from it…
Krebs On Security needs a new branding…..Krebs On How to Cover-up Government Bureaucracy…..
Great Article Brian… Please keep telling the truth…..
As always Brian, your articles are thoughtful and insightful. Thank you for posting this information. Anyone who understands this kind of data breach should be terrified. Terrified for themselves, their neighbors and their communities at large. We should also be fearful for our rights as Americans. Add to it national security implications here that we do not even begin to understand, or fully grasp. Those countries and bad actors who wish us ill are salivating at the possibility of getting the keys to the kingdom delivered on a silver platter. Without firing a shot. Dark days indeed.
Thank you, Brian, for keeping your focus on cybersecurity and digital privacy.
The concern I’ve had since Musk was named to head DOGE giving him and his team seemingly unfettered access to this large cache of information, is the issue of conflict of interest. Musk has far reaching global business interests. He hasn’t stepped away from his corporate interests, including those that compete head to head with corporations that submit sensitive research and corporate information to the federal government. Some readers here may even work for one of Musk’s competitors. So exactly who is watching over the fox who’s “guarding” the hen house. Who’s overseeing that there’s no abuse?
Here’s my other concern. I read the comments posted both with amusement and dismay. It’s sad to witness the disintegration of civility even in a forum where the focus of the discussions ought to be on cybersecurity. Whatever the reader’s political views are, please people, let’s stay on the topic. Also treat each other a little more respect. If we continue to view each other as enemies with no redeeming quality and label people using offensive language, we’re worse than little kids. Maybe a helpful habit is to ask yourself before commenting whether you would post your remark if you weren’t cloaked in anonymity. Would you be willing to say what you did if you were required to reveal your full name and contact info? If not, maybe rethink before posting. If we continue down this path, we’ll just end up abetting those interests, whether domestic or foreign, who gain from splitting us apart. Lastly, opinions are just that. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but opinions that are supported by hard facts carry more weight.
Sadly, there’s a lot of people bold enough to say that and worse to your face nowadays. They’ve all been emboldened.
Example, the racist that is about to be rehired by DOGE. Another example, see FB, people are absolutely posting even worse things, and sharing with people who know them or family.
It is amazing how people see posts or facts as either from a Democrat or a Republican.
This used to be a great country!!
This used to be a great website.
It’s still a great website, but it requires you to be able to read and understand things without putting your head in a political oven every time someone says something you don’t personally agree with. Some people seem to have lost that skill lately.
“so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)”
I’m a little confused. Does this department go by another name officially?
We, the ordinary non-billionare citizens of this country are DOOMED.
To understand why, first google for “Piketty’s Inequality Formula” and start reading.
Second, the unspoken but certain truth underlying this story by Brian is that (a) Elon has hired a set of nitwit 20-somethings that are his blindly adoring acolytes who will do ANYTHING for him INCLUDING BREAKING THE LAW (which they’ve already done, in spades) and that (b) these subserviant pawns have almost certainly already exfiltrated every bit of data & code for all of the agencies they’ve touched and have given all that data & code TO ELON and that (c) if recent history is any guide both Elon & Trump are aware that they are well & truly IMMUNE from ANY legal recourse, either civil or criminal, no matter what they do. If they’re sued, they have enough money so that they can easily keep any lawsuit unresolved for 10 years or more. If they’re prosecuted criminally for stealing confidential data, even by the petabyte, they can also keep that tied up in the courts virtually forever, or at least until they find some stooge judge (like Aileen Cannon or the Supreme Court) to make it all just magically go away. (Don’t forget also that Trump can pardon both himself and Elon if the need ever arises.)
So relax friends. No need to worry any more that Elon may get hold of all of your personal data and everything he wants to know about all of his competitors. He’s almost certainly already got all of that. (And good luck trying to force him, via legal process, to give it all up. He’s probably made dozens of copies already and scattered them to his techbros and to the four corners of the earth. The genie will NOT go back into the bottle and the toothpaste cannon be put back into the tube.)
There you are, Thiefs in the Shadows!
Surely you must realize that your success has made you some bitter enemies
You think you can deceive me, Barrel-Rider!
Smaug is here.
When smaug is laughing at you, you have no choice but to laugh because that is all you have let.
The suit + short shorts combo with the zoomer cut lmao. Probably takes daddy Elon real deep
Some describe the role that big tech plays today as technofeudalism in which big tech companies are feudal lords and the rest of us are lowly serfs.
Big tech spoon feeds us information consistent with each person’s profile, deepening our own confirmation bias. It’s child’s play to them to arouse our lizard brains, emotionally manipulate us, and keep us in our own little bubbles. It’s rapidly becoming an us-against-them world. A neat sleight of hand, isn’t it? Big tech keeping us focused on fighting each other while they abscond with our liberty, privacy and property. And what a wonderful tool for those in the political arena bent on amassing power.
It is interesting to see such a lengthy validation that clever-folk are being employed in the DOGE exercise.
Savvy street-smart mischief makers who seemingly are both rather effective and scaring the trousers off those apparently interested in perpetuating a lack of oversight.
Interesting times we live in!
Hi, I just want to confirm: Do he run the “PacketWare” or he just uses it service? If he truly runs it, I think he would put it in his Resume.
Also interested in why Neuralink chose to employ someone with a history of ddosing, sim swapping, and leaking company secrets to an innovative biotech firm? I would imagine that they would hire the most credentialed and dependable people for such experimental technology and his background doesn’t seem special here. Is he hired in the summer before the election for his coding skills or for his hacking abilities which helped him land his last job? Then despite being a relatively new hire, he is entrusted with being one of the DOGE senior leads? Very concerning given that Elon has been alleged to order hacks on former employees in the past…