US soldier sentenced to 70 months for hacking AT&T data

As reported by Krebs on Security, a US Army soldier has been sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for hacking into telecommunications companies and stealing call and text metadata for over 100 million AT&T customers. Cameron John Wagenius, 22, was stationed in South Korea when he operated under the cybercriminal alias "Kiberphant0m."

Wagenius, along with alleged co-conspirators, exploited exposed credentials and a lack of multi-factor authentication on Snowflake cloud storage accounts. He boasted about stealing call and text metadata from AT&T and other telecom companies, including Verizon's Push-to-Talk business, and attempted to extort them. The investigation, a collaboration between the Defense Criminal Investigative Service, FBI, Army CID, and U.S. Secret Service, highlighted the unique challenge of an insider threat with a secret clearance.

Despite the significant data breach, Wagenius's extortion efforts yielded only about $1,500. While incarcerated, Wagenius was caught attempting to research vulnerabilities in the Bureau of Prisons' computer network using AI tools, framing his queries as research for a book. He was ordered to pay nearly $300,000 in restitution to victims.

Source: Krebs on Security