Back in December, a piece of news gained quite the buzz about a U.S. Army soldier being indicted and arrested. He was said to be guilty of collecting and selling phone records of both AT&T and Verizon customers illegally. While telecommunication service providers had to deal with the leaked data of users, which put them at risk of exploitation, it was not until now that Cameron John Wagenius pleaded guilty and admitted to being involved in stealing massive amounts of phone records.
U.S. Army soldier pleaded guilty to hacking AT&T and Verizon and stealing major user records
The U.S. soldier, Cameron John Wagenius, was charged in December for posting online call logs of high-profile individuals such as President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris. Wagenius operated under the alias "Kiberphant0m" and even threatened to expose classified U.S. government call records if demands were not fulfilled. He was also linked to the major Snowflake data breach in 2024 that compromised about 1500 user accounts. AT&T and Verizon were the two major companies that were exposed to this illegal access, and a substantial amount of their users' data was stolen.
According to TechCrunch, Cameron John Wagenius admitted to charges of illegally sharing call record information online and of being involved in hacking AT&T and Verizon phone records. The two charges against him potentially add up to $250,000 in fines and up to 10 years in prison. Wagenius is also allegedly associated with another cybercriminal, Connor Riley Moucka, who was arrested in October. However, since Wagenius carried out the selling of the data that was hacked, he was not directly held accountable for the breaching of Snowflake or AT&T.
As per the report last month, U.S. Attorney Tessa Gorman explained to the court how the hacking incident related to AT&T and Verizon was not alone and, in fact, part of a broader plan. This is because both breaches were linked to the same unauthorized computer access and extortion attempts. She also pointed out how the legal cases against Wagenius had the same evidence and legal processes, confirming that all these cyber crimes fall under a broader hacking operation.
While cyberattacks are on the rise, authorities are increasingly focused on holding the hacking parties seriously accountable for such crimes by levying heavy fines and ordering longer sentences. Companies should also stay vigilant about any possible vulnerabilities in their systems to avoid having their systems compromised.
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