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Exclusive: DOGE staffer, 'Big Balls', provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
Reposted by Domestic Enemy Hat
Carl Quintanilla
@carlquintanilla.bsky.social
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(Reuters) - The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
#BigBalls
Exclusive: DOGE staffer, 'Big Balls', provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
www.reuters.com
March 26, 2025 at 7:07 AM
@carlquintanilla.bsky.social
Follow
(Reuters) - The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
#BigBalls
Exclusive: DOGE staffer, 'Big Balls', provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
www.reuters.com
March 26, 2025 at 7:07 AM
(Reuters) - The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2025-03-26T11:07:36.802Z
#BigBalls
Exclusive: DOGE staffer 'Big Balls' provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show
By Raphael Satter
March 26, 2025 8:07 AM EDT • Updated 13 min ago
Summary
• Two years before becoming a DOGE staffer, Coristine provided network support to a cybercrime group
• EGodly cybercrime group boasted online of hacking government emails and cyberstalking FBI agent
• Coristine didn't comment; Reuters could not determine his role at DOGE
WILMINGTON, Delaware, March 26 (Reuters) - (Note: This story contains strong language in paragraph 15)
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters. ... Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the DOGE effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the U.S. government. ... Past reporting, [opens new tab] had focused on his youth - he is 19 - and his chosen nickname of "bigballs," which became a pop culture punchline, opens new tab. Musk has championed the teen on his social media site X, telling his followers, [opens new tab] last month that "Big Balls is awesome."
Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN, [opens new tab] that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name "EGodly," according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run.
{snip}
In 2023, EGodly boasted on its Telegram channel of hijacking phone numbers, breaking into unspecified law enforcement email accounts in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and cryptocurrency theft. Early that year, the group distributed the personal details of an FBI agent who they said was investigating them, circulating his phone number, photographs of his house, and other private details on Telegram. ... EGodly also posted an audio recording of an obscene prank call made to the agent's phone and a video, shot from the inside of a car, of an unknown party driving by the agent's house in Wilmington, Delaware at night and screaming out the window, "EGodly says you're a bitch!"
Reuters could not independently verify EGodly's boasts of cybercriminal activity, including its claims to have hijacked phone numbers or infiltrated law enforcement emails. But it was able to authenticate the video by visiting the same Wilmington address and comparing the building to the one in the footage. ... The FBI agent targeted by EGodly, who is now retired, told Reuters that the group had drawn law enforcement attention because of its connection to swatting, the dangerous practice of making hoax emergency calls to send armed officers swarming targeted addresses. The agent didn't go into detail. Reuters is not identifying him out of concern for further harassment. ... "These are bad folks," the former agent said. "They're not a pleasant group."
{snip; paywall}
By Raphael Satter
March 26, 2025 8:07 AM EDT • Updated 13 min ago
Summary
• Two years before becoming a DOGE staffer, Coristine provided network support to a cybercrime group
• EGodly cybercrime group boasted online of hacking government emails and cyberstalking FBI agent
• Coristine didn't comment; Reuters could not determine his role at DOGE
WILMINGTON, Delaware, March 26 (Reuters) - (Note: This story contains strong language in paragraph 15)
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters. ... Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the DOGE effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the U.S. government. ... Past reporting, [opens new tab] had focused on his youth - he is 19 - and his chosen nickname of "bigballs," which became a pop culture punchline, opens new tab. Musk has championed the teen on his social media site X, telling his followers, [opens new tab] last month that "Big Balls is awesome."
Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN, [opens new tab] that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name "EGodly," according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run.
{snip}
In 2023, EGodly boasted on its Telegram channel of hijacking phone numbers, breaking into unspecified law enforcement email accounts in Latin America and Eastern Europe, and cryptocurrency theft. Early that year, the group distributed the personal details of an FBI agent who they said was investigating them, circulating his phone number, photographs of his house, and other private details on Telegram. ... EGodly also posted an audio recording of an obscene prank call made to the agent's phone and a video, shot from the inside of a car, of an unknown party driving by the agent's house in Wilmington, Delaware at night and screaming out the window, "EGodly says you're a bitch!"
Reuters could not independently verify EGodly's boasts of cybercriminal activity, including its claims to have hijacked phone numbers or infiltrated law enforcement emails. But it was able to authenticate the video by visiting the same Wilmington address and comparing the building to the one in the footage. ... The FBI agent targeted by EGodly, who is now retired, told Reuters that the group had drawn law enforcement attention because of its connection to swatting, the dangerous practice of making hoax emergency calls to send armed officers swarming targeted addresses. The agent didn't go into detail. Reuters is not identifying him out of concern for further harassment. ... "These are bad folks," the former agent said. "They're not a pleasant group."
{snip; paywall}
"That" Ostrich
@justostrich.com
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FYI Krebs broke this a month ago
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/
Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’
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 associ...
krebsonsecurity.com
March 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
@justostrich.com
Follow
FYI Krebs broke this a month ago
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/
Teen on Musk’s DOGE Team Graduated from ‘The Com’
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 associ...
krebsonsecurity.com
March 26, 2025 at 7:12 AM
FYI Krebs broke this a month ago
— "That" Ostrich (@justostrich.com) 2025-03-26T11:12:41.602Z
krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen...
"That" Ostrich
@justostrich.com
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Also not discussed in the Reuters article is the connection between the com subgroup 764 network and the Order of Nine Angles, a white supremacist satanist terrorist group responsible for multiple mass shootings.
March 26, 2025 at 7:16 AM
@justostrich.com
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Also not discussed in the Reuters article is the connection between the com subgroup 764 network and the Order of Nine Angles, a white supremacist satanist terrorist group responsible for multiple mass shootings.
March 26, 2025 at 7:16 AM
Also not discussed in the Reuters article is the connection between the com subgroup 764 network and the Order of Nine Angles, a white supremacist satanist terrorist group responsible for multiple mass shootings.
— "That" Ostrich (@justostrich.com) 2025-03-26T11:16:14.098Z
Coventry Supertax
@speedlimit9.bsky.social
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This is a different criminal group. But Reuters should have mentioned the first criminals too especially the fact that he was working for a child pornography ring.
March 26, 2025 at 7:36 AM
@speedlimit9.bsky.social
Follow
This is a different criminal group. But Reuters should have mentioned the first criminals too especially the fact that he was working for a child pornography ring.
March 26, 2025 at 7:36 AM
This is a different criminal group. But Reuters should have mentioned the first criminals too especially the fact that he was working for a child pornography ring.
— Coventry Supertax (@speedlimit9.bsky.social) 2025-03-26T11:36:46.420Z
3 replies
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