A DOGE staffer working as a ‘senior advisor' in the government's cybersecurity agency once provided tech support to a cybercrime ring
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old DOGE member, has been linked to a cybercrime group through his former company, DiamondCDN. Coristine has been listed as an adviser in multiple U.S. government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
A member of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) appears to have provided tech support to a cybercrime group known as EGodly.
Edward Coristine, also known by his nickname "Big Balls," has been linked to the cybercrime group through a company he ran called DiamondCDN. According to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and Telegram messages seen by Fortune, EGodly was one of the company's users.
The group publicly thanked Coristine's company for its assistance in a post on its Telegram channel on Feb. 15, 2023.
"We extend our gratitude to our valued partners DiamondCDN for generously providing us with their amazing DDoS protection and caching systems, which allow us to securely host and safeguard our website," the message read.
An FBI agent who had contact with EGodly told Reuters the group had been investigated due to a connection with swatting, a practice of making false emergency calls in an attempt to send SWAT teams to targeted addresses. He called EGodly "not a pleasant group," referring to the members as "bad folks."
In other messages shared on the Telegram channel and reviewed by Fortune, the group can also be seen selling people's private PII (Personally Identifiable Information), boasting about hacking government emails and cyberstalking an FBI agent. In one post, the group advertised "Brazil government emails" for sale, telling members they could use the addresses to get information on users by sending data requests to the support of platforms.
In one video posted by the account, a car drove past what appeared to be the FBI agent's house while someone screamed out the window: "EGodly says you're a bitch!"
An analysis of digital records conducted by Reuters found that between October 2022 and June 2023, the EGodly website, dataleak.fun, was linked to IP addresses associated with DiamondCDN and other businesses owned by Coristine. During this period, some visitors to the site encountered a DiamondCDN "Security check," the outlet reported.
Representatives for the State Department and DiamondCDN did not immediately return requests for comment from Fortune. The department and Coristine did not reply to Reuters comment requests either.
Coristine's role within the government is not entirely clear.
The 19-year-old was most recently a freshman mechanical engineering and physics major at Boston's Northeastern University until joining Elon Musk's cost-cutting team at DOGE. He also worked briefly at Musk's brain implant company Neuralink.
According to Reuters, he's listed as a "senior adviser" at the State Department as well as the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. He's also been linked to the Department of Homeland Security by a Washington Post report. Wired has also reported that Coristine is listed as one of several 'experts' at the Office of Personnel Management, the government's HR department.
Although Coristine's link to EGodly may have been brief, Nitin Natarajan—formerly the deputy director of CISA under President Joe Biden—expressed concern about the teenager now being part of a team with extensive access to government systems.
"This stuff was not in the distant past," Natarajan told Reuters. "The recency of the activity and the types of groups he was associated would definitely be concerning."
It's also not the first time Coristine has made headlines for his past associations.
Last month, Bloomberg reported that he was previously fired from an internship at Path Network for reportedly leaking information to competitors. Coristine later denied doing anything "contractually wrong' while working at Path Network via a post on Discord, per Bloomberg.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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