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Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

krebsonsecurity.com

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Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#901

Post by zelon88 »

unethical_ban wrote: post #888
nis0s wrote: post #877

I think the only relevant issue is that someone with prior associations with The Com may be vulnerable to extortion, but simply having been associated with the group doesn’t mean much by itself. Law enforcement hires people from “the other side” all the time as they have relevant domain knowledge, and navigational skills of such spaces. Saying that the federal government, or its contractors, should never hire such pe…

Isn't the issue that there hasn't been any clearance issued? News reports are the vetting.

Yes. We don't know who has this data, where it's stored, who has access to it, and who pays their bills.

This whole thing is built on heresay of unscrupulous people who claim to know better.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#902

Post by throwaway290 »

leftcenterright wrote: post #772
culi wrote: post #454

> the DOGE teen is a former denizen of ‘The Com,’ an archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels that function as a kind of distributed cybercriminal social network for facilitating instant collaboration To be honest, this is my first time hearing about The Com. Does anyone have any more reading on this? You'd think they'd use something more secure than Discord (which has 0 encryption) and Telegram which doesn'…

Read about it from Europol: https://www.europol.europa.eu/media-press/newsroom/news/law-... > Violent online groups are targeting and manipulating vulnerable children and young people across widely accessible online platforms. There are multiple groups, associations and evolving subgroups that make up the online network known as The Com – short for community. The Com is a virtual community of groups and individuals w…

Also discussed in https://cyberscoop.com/the-com-764-cybercrime-violent-crime-...

> The child sextortion group 764 and the global collective of loosely associated groups known as “The Com” are using tools and techniques normally used for financially motivated cybercrime tactics — such as SIM swapping, IP grabbing and social engineering — to commit violent crimes, according to exclusive law enforcement and intelligence reports reviewed by CyberScoop.

> The reports offer insight into the underbelly of the global network, showing how they are using traditional cybercriminal tools to identify, target, groom, extort, and cause physical and psychological harm to victims as young as 10. They were shared with police nationwide and in some cases, with foreign-allied governments.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#903

Post by roguecoder »

TrackerFF wrote: post #779
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

Maybe the US 3-letter agencies are a bit more forgiving, but when I worked in intelligence there were three deadly sins that would make you untouchable as a candidate: - Drug use - Financial crimes - Close ties to hostile countries (China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North-Korea, etc.) And at least in my country, it's not the intelligence agencies themselves that handle the security clearance, but rather a dedicated agen…

America has recently waved the security clearance process entirely for certain roles, so currently there isn't anything that is disqualifying right now.

Prior to that change, lying in the clearance process was the one thing that was absolutely disqualifying. As you noted candidates are incentivized to lie, and so "did you lie here, where it is likely to benefit you?" becomes an effective screening mechanism for people who are willing to compromise their ethics for personal gain.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#904

Post by alistairSH »

belorn wrote: post #114

It has been a fairly common story, and part rumor, that intelligence agencies like to recruit young people active in the cyber criminal scene, and that the IT security industry also adapted this approach. They basically becomes part informer and part subject expert, especially since IT security expertise seems to be a difficult subject matter to teach in universities. When I studied IT security in university, about 1…

If these hires exist (and I'm doubtful they do, at least at any scale beyond "this one kid is an actual genius!"), are they then given the "keys to the kingdom"? Musk/Trump wanted this kid to have what amounts to superuser access to the government purse, which is unheard of for any new hire, let alone one with this kid's background.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#905

Post by empath75 »

nis0s wrote: post #877

I think the only relevant issue is that someone with prior associations with The Com may be vulnerable to extortion, but simply having been associated with the group doesn’t mean much by itself. Law enforcement hires people from “the other side” all the time as they have relevant domain knowledge, and navigational skills of such spaces. Saying that the federal government, or its contractors, should never hire such pe…

Nobody, I think, is suggesting that nobody should hire those people, but when law enforcement hires those people, they put them through extensive screening and are careful about what they give them access to.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#906

Post by roguecoder »

lucasRW wrote: post #813
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

These guys worked for SpaceX anyway, so it's pretty much guaranteed that they were already cleared even before joining DOGE. A lot of speculation and guessing on this topic, which is surprising from news outlets which pride themselves on "facts" and "truth"... I'm not even mentioning the fact that revealing the names, handles, identities of employees and clearing saying that they have admin rights on systems X and Y,…

Interns aren't around long enough to get security clearances and interns in defense companies usually work on non-classified work. The only vetting is "are you a citizen or lawful permanent resident?", for export compliance.

If an intern had access to any classified materials, it is because a crime was committed.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#907

Post by IAmGraydon »

jdross wrote: post #185

I realized I’m treading in extremely hostile waters here, but the stories I hear from folks working in DOGE are closer to “I spend 8am to 2am with the leaders of department X going through all contracts and outflows and identifying what is important versus wasteful given a target of saving $X million per day, and there are some great people in this department who really know what’s been going on and it’s been great t…

>the stories I hear from folks working in DOGE

I see. And you know these people? Where are you hearing these "stories"?

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#908

Post by roguecoder »

lucasRW wrote: post #813
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

These guys worked for SpaceX anyway, so it's pretty much guaranteed that they were already cleared even before joining DOGE. A lot of speculation and guessing on this topic, which is surprising from news outlets which pride themselves on "facts" and "truth"... I'm not even mentioning the fact that revealing the names, handles, identities of employees and clearing saying that they have admin rights on systems X and Y,…

Journalists' rights to publicize who works for the government is absolutely protected by the first amendment.

Republicans didn't have any problem with that when they used it to blow Valerie Plame's cover in political retaliation. Somehow now that it's Musk's army of channers stealing our data and breaking the government payment systems _some_ people have decided the first amendment is optional I guess.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#909

Post by llamaimperative »

Kinrany wrote: post #358
relaxing wrote: post #16

Good reporting here. Clarifies why the kid was fired for leaking documents - it was specifically for leaking internal corporate documents to a competitor. The details about cybercrime discords involved in SWATting and DDOS attacks are fascinating. The idea that anyone involved in this would be fast-tracked for a clearance is beyond the pale.

This assumes that leaking is a compulsive behavior. The federal government has stronger incentives to offer for not leaking information. Getting fired is nothing.

Eh, I think "stealing is bad" is a plenty sufficient rationale for the vast majority of people not to engage in this type of behavior regardless of what kind of threats people dangle over their head.

Obviously this kid would reasonably expect to get a pardon for any law he breaks anyway so long as he breaks it in service of the cult.

Re: Teen on Musk's DOGE team graduated from 'The Com'

#910

Post by pc86 »

TrackerFF wrote: post #779
b8 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People get clearances even if they've used hardcore drugs such as cocaine and various more serious crimes than computer crimes. The adjudication guides for clearances explain this in more detail. I have a friend who exploited RCE full-chain exploits on productions servers and used to DDoS. He got a TS/SCI clearance no problem and didn't even finish college. I interviewed too and admitted to that stuff. They cared mor…

Maybe the US 3-letter agencies are a bit more forgiving, but when I worked in intelligence there were three deadly sins that would make you untouchable as a candidate: - Drug use - Financial crimes - Close ties to hostile countries (China, Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North-Korea, etc.) And at least in my country, it's not the intelligence agencies themselves that handle the security clearance, but rather a dedicated agen…

US intelligence agencies really only care about your third point directly, everything else they care about only insofar as it can blackmail you or make you beholden to criminal interests.

They don't care if you're gay, but they care if you're closeted. They don't care if you do drugs, but they do care if it's such a problem you could become financially beholden to someone over it.

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