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Scrape Timestamp (UTC): 2025-02-20 03:06:19.108
Source: https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/20/us_army_snowflake_theft/
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US Army soldier linked to Snowflake extortion admits breaking the law. That's the way the cookie melts. A US Army soldier suspected of hacking AT&T and Verizon has admitted leaking online people's private call records. Cameron John Wagenius informed a federal court in Washington state Wednesday he intends to plead guilty [PDF] to two counts of unlawfully transferring confidential phone records, with no plea deal in sight. He was cuffed last month aged 20 after being indicted. In December, US prosecutors had simply claimed [PDF] Wagenius on November 6 did "knowingly and intentionally sell and transfer, and attempt to sell and transfer, confidential phone records ... without prior authorization." By that they mean he illegally obtained people's call logs from telcos, and then worked to share that info with others. Here's where it gets interesting. Last month, prosecutors linked Wagenius with two others accused of stealing data from more than 150 Snowflake cloud accounts in April 2024, data that would be publicly leaked by the crew if a ransom wasn't paid. It is alleged Wagenius was recruited by the pair to help in that extortion. Wagenius was believed to be using the underworld handle Kiberphant0m, who had claimed to have compromised at least 15 telecommunications firms including AT&T and Verizon, and was even allegedly able to get their hands on Donald Trump and Kamala Harris's call logs. When one of the other two suspected Snowflake extortionists was arrested, whoever was behind Kiberphant0m threatened on November 6 that they would release sensitive US government call logs unless AT&T got in touch. As part of that threat, Kiber released a sample of people's confidential logs. You don’t think we don’t have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again "In the event you do not reach out to us, [AT&T], all presidential government call logs will be leaked," Kiberphant0m said on a cyber-crime forum. "You don’t think we don’t have plans in the event of an arrest? Think again." Thus, it appears prosecutors reckoned Wagenius was Kiberphant0m, who responded to an arrest in the Snowflake group by not only sharing some illegally obtained sensitive call records on the dark web but also threatened to leak the whole lot. The two other Snowflake extortion suspects - Alexander "Connor" Moucka and John Binns - allegedly netted over $2 million from AT&T, Ticketmaster, and other victims of the heist. Both were arrested — Moucka in Canada, Binns in Turkey — and are awaiting extradition. "Both cases," the prosecution of Moucka and Binns, and Wagenius, "arise from the same computer intrusion and extortion and include some of the same stolen victim information," Uncle Sam's legal eagles claimed in a court filing [PDF] in January. Wagenius, who now faces up to 20 years in the clink and $500,000 in fines, was arrested near Fort Cavazos, Texas, home to multiple US Army divisions. Moucka and Binns have been charged with 20 counts, including conspiracy, computer fraud and abuse, wire fraud, and aggravated identity theft. Court documents from November alleged the duo used custom software they had named Rapeflake to sift through compromised Snowflake accounts for valuable material to use in extortion attempts. Neither the Army or Snowflake had any comment at the time of going to press.
Daily Brief Summary
Cameron John Wagenius, a US Army soldier, confessed to unlawfully transferring confidential phone records and plans to plead guilty to two charges.
Wagenius was connected to a larger scheme involving the extortion of data from over 150 Snowflake cloud accounts, potentially including sensitive US government communications.
He was identified as possibly using the alias Kiberphant0m, under which he claimed to have breached multiple telecom companies, including AT&T and Verizon.
Wagenius and his alleged accomplices were accused of threatening to leak Donald Trump and Kamala Harris's call logs, as well as other sensitive US government call logs unless their demands were met.
The extortion group allegedly garnered over $2 million from victims such as AT&T and Ticketmaster through their criminal activities.
His co-conspirators, Alexander Moucka and John Binns, were arrested in Canada and Turkey respectively and are awaiting extradition on multiple charges including conspiracy and computer fraud.
Wagenius faces up to 20 years in prison and $500,000 in fines if convicted.