By AJ Vicens
DETROIT (Reuters) – Federal authorities unsealed an indictment accusing a U.S. Army soldier of selling and attempting to sell secret stolen phone records.
Cameron John Wagenius was arrested Dec. 20 and charged in Western District Court of Texas in Waco with two counts of unlawful transmission of confidential phone record information, according to court records made public Monday, which did not specify his rank or location. He was stationed.
“We are aware of the arrest of a soldier from Fort Cavazos,” Colonel Kamil Stalkooper, spokesman for the 3rd Armored Corps, told Reuters via email. “The 3rd Armored Corps will continue to cooperate with all law enforcement agencies as appropriate.” Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, is located in Texas.
Stalkooper referred further questions to the Army Criminal Investigation Department, which told Reuters it was working with federal law enforcement partners and would not share additional information.
Court records did not provide details about these allegations, but cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs said on his website that Wagenius used the name “Kiberphant0m” online and shared allegations about multiple hacks, including call logs allegedly involving Vice President Kamala Harris and President – The election of Donald Trump. Krebs said Wagenius was 20 years old, but court or Army records did not confirm that.
Wagenius' lawyer could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Texas judge ordered Wagenius to be sent to Seattle, where federal prosecutors handling the case are based, according to a court filing.
This office is prosecuting Connor Mocca and John Baines, who are accused of a range of crimes linked to a series of data breaches linked to “billions of sensitive customer service records”, non-content call and text logs, and banking services. and financial information, payroll records, driver's license numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information, according to the Oct. 10 indictment.
Muka, 25, was arrested on October 30 at his home in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and faces extradition to the United States. The Canadian Department of Justice did not immediately respond to a question about Mocha's status. Bynes is currently in prison in connection with charges related to a separate hack in Türkiye, where he was living.
Moucka and Binns were likely involved in data theft and extortion of dozens of client companies of Snowflake (NYSE:), a data storage and processing company, researchers said.
Allison Nixon, chief research officer at cybersecurity firm Unit 221B, told Reuters that she and her unidentified colleague learned Wagenius' true identity after the Mocha hacking group “threatened us for no reason.” She said Wagenius was a member of that group.
“The time it took to enforce the law after that was the quickest I have ever seen in my entire career,” Nixon said. “It was incredible to watch.”
Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI immediately responded to requests for comment on Tuesday.
(Reporting by AJ Vicens; Editing by David Gregorio and Bill Berkrot)
