Latest news with #BigBalls
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Democrat asks who will get ‘Big Balls' in Musk, Trump ‘divorce'
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) sarcastically highlighted President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's apparent rift over the 'big, beautiful' spending bill during a hearing Wednesday by posing the question: What will happen to the teen tech wunderkind infamously known as 'Big Balls'? 'Now that the national divorce is happening … who's gonna get 'Big Balls'?' Moskowitz asked during a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing. 'I'm worried about him. The children always get caught in the middle.' 'If he's out there, I just want him to know we are rooting for him,' the Florida Democrat added, referring to himself as 'also a child of divorce.' Edward Coristine, the 19-year-old known online as 'Big Balls,' was brought onto the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with his mentor Musk earlier this year near the start of Trump's second presidency. He quickly drew attention for his age, the scope of his role in handling government information and his online moniker. Coristine's account on the social platform X is now set to private. The White House and federal Office of Personnel Management didn't immediately respond to The Hill's queries about the status of his employment with the federal government. Several DOGE employees departed the Trump administration along with Musk last week, including adviser Steve Davis, spokesperson Katie Miller and lawyer James Burnham. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO expressed gratitude to Trump at the end of his special government employee role but has since emerged as a voracious critic of the Trump-backed GOP megabill the House passed last month. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' Musk posted Tuesday on the social platform X, another business he owns. The billionaire continued to blast the bill, urging his X followers Wednesday to 'Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.' The sprawling 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' is now up for consideration in the Senate, where lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have spoken out against it. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
5 days ago
- Business
- The Hill
Democrat asks who will get ‘Big Balls' in Musk, Trump ‘divorce'
Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) sarcastically highlighted President Trump and billionaire Elon Musk's apparent rift over the 'big, beautiful' spending bill during a hearing Wednesday by posing the question: What will happen to the teen tech wunderkind infamously known as 'Big Balls'? 'Now that the national divorce is happening … Who's gonna get 'Big Balls'?' Moskowitz said during a House Oversight panel hearing. 'I'm worried about him. The children always get caught in the middle.' 'If he's out there, I just want him to know we are rooting for him,' the Florida Democrat added, referring to himself as 'also a child of divorce.' Edward Cortisone, the 19-year-old known online as 'Big Balls,' was brought onto the White House's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) with his mentor Musk earlier this year near the start of Trump's second presidency. He quickly drew attention over his age, the scope of his role in handling government information and his unconventional online moniker. Cortisone's account on social platform X is now set to private. The White House and federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) didn't immediately respond to The Hill's queries about the status of his employment with the federal government. Several DOGE employees departed the Trump administration along with Musk last week, including adviser Steve Davis, spokesperson Katie Miller and lawyer James Burnham. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO expressed gratitude to Trump at the end of his special government employee role but has since emerged as a voracious critic of the Trump-backed GOP megabill that passed the House last month. 'I'm sorry, but I just can't stand it anymore. This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,' Musk posted Tuesday on X, which he also owns. The billionaire continued to blast the bill urging online followers on Wednesday to 'Call your Senator, Call your Congressman, Bankrupting America is NOT ok! KILL the BILL.' The sprawling 'One Big Beautiful Bill Act' is now up for consideration in the Senate, where lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have spoken out against it.
Forbes
09-05-2025
- Forbes
New $1 Trillion DOGE-Trolling Ransomware Attacks Confirmed
New DOGE Big Balls ransomware attacks spotted. Just as you were hoping the ransomware threat might have started to ebb, the bad news keeps flowing in. From government warnings as hackers target passwords and 2FA codes to use in their extortion attacks, one ransomware campaign dropping zero-days, and researchers indicating a 5,365 ransomware attack rampage. There has been some good news, such as the notorious LockBit group being hacked and details of their crypto wallets being leaked. But the good news is in the minority, as this latest report has confirmed: the DOGE Big Balls ransomware attackers are back with a new payload alongside that by now infamous Elon Musk-trolling $1 trillion ransom demand. In case you missed it the first time around, the strange tale of the DOGE Big Balls ransomware attack is quite the oddball, even for the world of cybersecurity, where threats often border on the bizarre. It all started on April 15 when I reported how a ransomware group was weaving political conspiracy theory into malware code in an apparent attempt to throw cyber-defenders and law enforcement off the scent. That ransomware was given the name of DOGE Big Balls because it referenced software engineer and DOGE worker, who has an online nickname of Big Balls, and even included his home address and telephone number in the ransomware note. Fast forward to April 23, and things started getting even more outlandish as the ransomware attackers upped the ante by including a $1 trillion demand in the ransomware note. This appeared, once again, to be a direct DOGE-trolling exercise, aimed at Elon Musk as much as anyone. 'Give me five bullet points on what you accomplished for work last week, or you owe me a TRILLION dollars,' the note demanded. It would be too easy to suggest you can't take this bunch of cybercriminals seriously, but that would be a mistake, as threat intelligence has just landed regarding another twist and turn in the DOGE ransomware campaign, including dangerous new payloads and tools being used in ongoing attacks. The Netskope report describes new scripts and binaries, as well as custom and open-source tools, and new ransomware payloads. 'During our investigation,' Fróes said, 'we noticed that both the payloads and the URLs used to download the payloads were updated quite often.' That there was a large number of payloads, and these were updated at an alarming frequency, Fróes said, it only goes to reinforce how 'complex and dangerous attacks involving this ransomware can be, using many different tools to cover phases like lateral movement, privilege escalation, credential dumping, and more.' So, regardless of the DOGE-trolling and the frankly ridiculous $1 trillion demand, take note when Fróes concluded the report by stressing the 'significant negative impact' that a successful DOGE Big Balls ransomware attack can have on a business. At the end of the day, no matter the bizarreness of the attacker, ransomware is no joke.
The Independent
03-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
Musk promises DOGE has a ‘long-term' future as steps back from White House having cut a fraction of what he promised
Elon Musk vowed that DOGE's cost-cutting efforts will continue - even as he prepares to step back from the disruptive government department. In a wide-ranging interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News Thursday, the billionaire, whose time as a 'special government employee' terminates at the end of May, described DOGE as a 'long-term enterprise.' Musk initially promised DOGE would shave $2 trillion from federal spending and debt, but he quickly cut that amount in half. Last month, he lowered it further to $150 billion and then upped it to $160 billion, a tiny fraction of what he first promised. Despite falling well short of expectations, Musk's involvement with the government will be reduced to just a ' day or two ' going forward, as he turns his attention back to Tesla, whose profits took a huge hit in the first quarter of 2025. 'It's a long-term enterprise because if we take our eye off the ball, the waste and fraud will come roaring back,' said Musk. 'We're trying to have it be such that the funding is removed, the grants are gone.' One of the many criticisms leveled at DOGE has been its use of young staffers, who have little-to-no government experience. One such staffer - Edward Coistine, who is also known as 'Big Balls' - appeared alongside Musk on Jesse Watters Primetime to discuss his role for the first time. 'Who is Big Balls?' host Watters asked on his program, surrounded by DOGE members and supporters at a huge oval conference table. 'I am,' piped up 19-year-old DOGE staff member Edward Coristine. 'That should be obvious,' Musk quipped to laughter. 'I just set it [Big Balls] as my LinkedIn username,' said the high school grad. 'People on LinkedIn take themselves like super seriously and are pretty averse to risk, and I was like, I want to be neither of those things,' he explained. 'Honestly, I didn't think anyone would notice.' Coristine, who works in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, explained he uses 'computer stuff' as he claims to ferret out 'fraud and waste,' the mantra of his boss. He explained, for example: 'You look at a specific line item, $20 million. Okay, what is it going to? For the majority of payment systems it's like, we don't really know.' DOGE critics have argued that the young techie crew's analyses of pay systems demonstrate how little they know about basic bookkeeping and accounting. Another staffer said Thursday that $330 million has been paid to dead people, but DOGE has yet to show evidence of that. The DOGE staffers put on a show of force for Watters even as Musk has left the White House. The tech billionaire insisted his Department of Government Efficiency is not taking 'its eye off the ball' in continued cuts to the federal government. Musk has yet to prove he and DOGE cut any waste and fraud, and figures show that he hasn't managed to even reduce spending by the Trump administration. Though an estimated 250,000 jobs have been eliminated by firing or buyouts, and federal agencies, grants, services and contracts have been slashed, Trump administration spending is actually up 6.3 percent (about $153 billion) over the same period last year when President Joe Biden was in office, according to Treasury data. It's difficult to know how much his Department of Government Efficiency has actually saved, given the error-riddled 'receipts' that have been posted on the DOGE website. Some cuts have cost the government countless dollars, such as firing Internal Revenue Service workers who ferret out tax cheats and collect the taxes that run the nation.
The Independent
02-05-2025
- Business
- The Independent
‘Big Balls' finally takes a bow as Musk vows DOGE will keep carving up government
A notorious teenage DOGE staffer known as 'Big Balls' finally revealed himself publicly in a panel discussion with Elon Musk on Fox News Thursday as the crew defended their work dismantling the federal government. 'Who is Big Balls?' host Jesse Watters asked on his program Watters World , surrounded by DOGE members and supporters at a huge oval conference table. 'I am,' piped up 19-year-old DOGE staff member Edward Coristine. 'That should be obvious,' Musk quipped to laughter. 'I just set it [Big Balls] as my LinkedIn username,' said the high school grad. 'People on LinkedIn take themselves like super seriously and are pretty averse to risk, and I was like, I want to be neither of those things,' he explained. 'Honestly, I didn't think anyone would notice.' Coristine, who works in the State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Technology, explained he uses 'computer stuff' as he claims to ferret out 'fraud and waste,' the mantra of his boss. He explained, for example: 'You look at a specific line item, $20 million. Okay, what is it going to? For the majority of payment systems it's like, we don't really know.' DOGE critics have argued that the young techie crew's analyses of pay systems demonstrate how little they know about basic bookkeeping and accounting. Another staffer said Thursday that $330 million has been paid to dead people, but DOGE has yet to show evidence of that. The DOGE staffers put on a show of force for Watters even as Musk has left the White House. The tech billionaire insisted his Department of Government Efficiency is not taking 'its eye off the ball' in continued cuts to the federal government. DOGE will remain a 'long-term enterprise,' Musk vowed, even after his role as a 'special government employee' terminates at the end of May. 'It's a long-term enterprise because if we take our eye off the ball, the waste and fraud will come roaring back,' said Musk. 'We're trying to have it be such that the funding is removed, the grants are gone.' Musk has yet to prove he and DOGE cut any waste and fraud, and figures show that he hasn't managed to even reduce spending by the Trump administration. Though an estimated 250,000 jobs have been eliminated by firing or buyouts, and federal agencies, grants, services and contracts have been slashed, Trump administration spending is actually up 6.3 percent (about $153 billion) over the same period last year when President Joe Biden was in office, according to Treasury data. Musk initially promised DOGE would shave $2 trillion from federal spending and debt, but quickly cut that amount in half. Last month he lowered it further to $150 billion, then upped it to $160 billion, a tiny fraction of what he first promised. It's difficult to know how much his Department of Government Efficiency has actually saved, given the error-riddled 'receipts' that have been posted on the DOGE website. Some cuts have cost the government countless dollars, such as firing Internal Revenue Service workers who ferret out tax cheats and collect the taxes that run the nation.
