Exclusive: DOGE staffer, 'Big Balls', provided tech support to cybercrime ring, records show [View all]
Source: Reuters
The best-known member of Elon Musk's U.S. DOGE Service team of technologists once provided support to a cybercrime gang that bragged about trafficking in stolen data and cyberstalking an FBI agent, according to digital records reviewed by Reuters.
Edward Coristine is among the most visible members of the DOGE effort that has been given sweeping access to official networks as it attempts to radically downsize the U.S. government.
Past reporting, opens new tab had focused on his youth - he is 19 - and his chosen nickname of "bigballs," which became a pop culture punchline, opens new tab. Musk has championed the teen on his social media site X, telling his followers, opens new tab last month that "Big Balls is awesome."
Beginning around 2022, while still in high school, Coristine ran a company called DiamondCDN, opens new tab that provided network services, according to corporate and digital records reviewed by Reuters and interviews with half a dozen former associates. Among its users was a website run by a ring of cybercriminals operating under the name "EGodly," according to digital records preserved by the internet intelligence firm DomainTools and the online cybersecurity tool Any.Run.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/doge-staffer-big-balls-provided-tech-support-cybercrime-ring-records-show-2025-03-26/
= new reply since forum marked as read