US Army soldier pleads guilty to hacking telcos and extortion

Cameron John Wagenius, a former soldier in the U.S. Army, has confessed to charges related to the hacking of telecommunications firms and subsequent extortion attempts, as announced by the Department of Justice on Tuesday. Operating under the alias "kiberphant0m," Wagenius conspired to defraud ten companies, deploying tactics such as stealing login information through brute force attacks and other methods. Using Telegram group chats, he coordinated with his accomplices to share the stolen credentials and strategize further hacks. Their attempts at extortion were both private and public, extending to hacking forums like the infamous BreachForums. In some instances, they monetized the stolen data and utilized the compromised credentials for additional fraudulent activities, including SIM swapping. Earlier this year, Wagenius had already entered a guilty plea concerning breaches involving AT&T and Verizon, which allowed him to access a significant volume of call records. His sentencing is set for October 6, where he could face up to 20 years in prison. Notably, Wagenius has been associated with a series of hacks that trace back to a breach involving the cloud computing powerhouse, Snowflake.