By AJ Vicens
DETROIT (Reuters) – Federal authorities unsealed an indictment accusing a U.S. Army soldier of selling and attempting to sell stolen confidential telephone records.
Cameron John Wagenius was arrested Dec. 20 and charged in the Western District of Texas court in Waco with two counts of unlawful transfer of confidential information from telephone records, according to court records made public Monday, which did not specify his rank or where. It was destined.
“We are aware of the detention of a soldier from Fort Cavazos,” Col. Kamil Sztalkoper, spokesman for the III Armored Corps, told Reuters in an email. “III Armored Corps will continue to cooperate with all law enforcement agencies as appropriate.” Fort Cavazos, formerly Fort Hood, is in Texas.
Sztalkoper referred further questions to the Department of Army’s Criminal Investigation Division, which told Reuters it was working with federal law enforcement partners and would not share additional information.
Court records did not provide details about the allegations, but cybersecurity journalist Brian Krebs said on his website that Wagenius called himself “Kiberphant0m” online and shared claims of multiple attacks, including call logs allegedly linked to Vice President Kamala Harris. and the president- elect Donald Trump. Krebs said Wagenius was 20 years old, but court records or the military did not confirm this.
A lawyer for Wgenius could not immediately be reached for comment.
A Texas magistrate ordered that Wgenius be sent to Seattle, where federal prosecutors handling the case are based, according to a court filing.
That office is handling the prosecution of Connor Moucka and John Binns, charged with a series of crimes related to a series of data breaches involving “billions of confidential customer service records,” call history records and text messages without content, bank records and financial information, payroll records, driver’s license numbers, passport numbers, Social Security numbers and other personal information, according to an Oct. 10 indictment.
Moucka, 25, was arrested on October 30 at his home in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, and faces extradition to the United States. Canada’s Justice Department did not immediately respond to a question about Moucka’s status. Binns is currently in prison in connection with allegations surrounding another hack in Türkiye, where he lived.
Moucka and Binns are likely involved in data theft and extortion of dozens of companies that are clients of Snowflake (NYSE 🙂, a data storage and processing company, investigators have said.
Allison Nixon, research director at cybersecurity firm Unit 221B, told Reuters that she and an anonymous colleague identified Wagenius’ true identity after Moucka’s hacking group “threatened us for no reason.” Wagenius was a member of that group, he said.
“The response time from authorities was the fastest I have ever witnessed in my entire career,” Nixon said. “It was amazing to see.”
Neither the Justice Department nor the FBI immediately responded to requests for comment Tuesday.
(Reporting by AJ Vicens; Editing by David Gregorio and Bill Berkrot)