US Soldier Charged For Selling Confidential Phone Records (image @Pixabay)
Washington DC, US: A US soldier was accused of selling and attempting to sell stolen confidential phone records. Federal authorities on Monday unsealed an indictment accusing the soldier, Cameron John Wagenius. He was arrested last month and was and charged with two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential phone records information, as per court records.
The court did not specify the soldier’s rank or where he was stationed. “We are aware of the arrest of a Fort Cavazos soldier,” Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, spokesperson for the III Armored Corps, told Reuters in an email. “III Armored Corps will continue to cooperate with all law enforcement agencies as appropriate”, he said.
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The court records also did not give specifics about the allegations. However, cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs on his website said that Wagenius went by the name “Kiberphant0m” online and shared claims of multiple hacks, including call records allegedly related to Vice President Kamala Harris and President-elect Donald Trump. Krebs said Wagenius was 20 years old, but court records or the Army did not confirm this, reported Reuters.
A Texas magistrate ordered Wagenius to be sent to Seattle where the federal prosecutors handling the case are based, according to a court filing.
The office is also handling the prosecution of Connor Moucka and John Binns, who are accused of a range of crimes connected to a string of breaches of data connected to “billions of sensitive customer service records,” non-content call and text history records, banking and financial information, payroll records, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information, as per an October 10th indictment.
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25 year old Moucka, was arrested on October 30 at his home in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and faces extradition to the U.S. Canada’s Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Reuter’s question on Moucka’s status. Binns is behind the bars due to the accusations surrounding a separate hack in Turkey, where he was living.
Moucka and Binns are likely involved in data theft and extortion of dozens of customer companies of Snowflake, a data storage and processing firm, researchers have said, as reported by Reuters.
(With inputs from agencies)
