Doge Staffer Allegedly Ran Company Providing Services To Hacking Group

New allegations astir DOGE advisor Edward “big balls” Coristine raise questions astir hiring practices.

US Department of Government Efficiency tech advisor Edward Coristine antecedently ran a mini infrastructure supplier that offered services to a cybercriminal group, it has been alleged.

While successful precocious schoolhouse successful 2022 nan then-16-year-old DOGE elder advisor ran a institution called DiamondCDN that supported a website utilized by a cybercriminal group named ‘EGodly’, Reuters reported Wednesday.

The relationship betwixt DiamondCDN and EGodly was established done integer records preserved by threat intelligence institution DomainTools and online cybersecurity instrumentality Any.Run, nan Reuters report said.

It’s not clear that Coristine was alert of EGodly’s activity but successful early 2023 nan group thanked nan institution connected Telegram for helping to support its dataleak.fun website up and running:

“We widen our gratitude to our weighted partners DiamondCDN for generously providing america pinch their astonishing DDoS protection and caching systems, which let america to securely big and safeguard our website,” publication nan message.

Records seen by Reuters show this support ran from October 2022 to June 2023 and that users attempting to scope nan dataleak.fun tract would first person to walk a DiamondCDN anti-bot ‘security check.’

Breaking into rule enforcement accounts

Crimes EGodly boasted it had carried retired see cryptocurrency theft, telephone number hijacking, and breaking into rule enforcement email accounts, Reuters said. The group besides circulated individual specifications of an FBI supplier it believed was investigating it, and engaged successful swatting, nan believe of calling equipped constabulary to a target’s location connected mendacious pretenses arsenic a shape of intimidation.

This is not nan first clip Coristine’s past has been questioned. In February Bloomberg reported that he was fired successful 2022 by cybersecurity institution Path Network for allegedly “leaking proprietary information.” Separately, it has been reported that Coristine was associated pinch a Telegram/Discord cybercriminal societal web called ‘The Com.’

However, for now, nan allegations against him are conscionable that — allegations. He has not commented connected immoderate of them.

None of this would clasp wider value if Coristine, now 19 years old, wasn’t 1 of DOGE’s super-nerds. His personage has besides been bolstered by DOGE booster Elon Musk himself, who successful February tweeted connected X that “Big Balls is awesome,” a reference to his vulgar nickname successful precocious school.

Meanwhile, Coristine has entree arsenic portion of his occupation to immoderate of nan astir confidential servers successful nan US government, including ones that usually require a precocious level of information clearance.

It’s a reminder that each occupation candidate should beryllium cautiously vetted, said cybersecurity master Graham Cluley.