Former U.S. Army soldier Cameron John Wagenius, also known as "kiberphant0m" and "cyb3rph4nt0m", has entered a guilty plea over his involvement in the sweeping attacks and extortion schemes against AT&T and other U.S. telecommunications providers, reports CyberScoop.
Wagenius who sought to peddle pilfered data to a foreign intelligence service and extorted over 10 organizations following the compromise of AT&T and other firms' cloud platforms alongside co-conspirators Connor Moucka and John Binns could be imprisoned for up to 27 years once he is sentenced in October. Such a development was regarded by Unit 221B Chief Research Officer Allison Nixon to be among the most important victories against cybercrime. "Cybercriminals are shockingly slow to update their threat model, and still operate on the assumption that they won't be jailed and will get a job in the industry afterwards. As multi-decade sentences pile up, reality will set in: Brazen cybercriminals are much more likely to die in prison than they used to, and anonymity isn't real," said Nixon.
Wagenius who sought to peddle pilfered data to a foreign intelligence service and extorted over 10 organizations following the compromise of AT&T and other firms' cloud platforms alongside co-conspirators Connor Moucka and John Binns could be imprisoned for up to 27 years once he is sentenced in October. Such a development was regarded by Unit 221B Chief Research Officer Allison Nixon to be among the most important victories against cybercrime. "Cybercriminals are shockingly slow to update their threat model, and still operate on the assumption that they won't be jailed and will get a job in the industry afterwards. As multi-decade sentences pile up, reality will set in: Brazen cybercriminals are much more likely to die in prison than they used to, and anonymity isn't real," said Nixon.
