DOGE Staffer Previously Assisted a Cybercrime Ring

Reuters reports that teen Department of Government Efficiency staffer Edward Coristine, who has since been embedded into the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), operated network services firm DiamondCDN, which worked with the EGodly cybercrime ring. This was just two years before being appointed to the Elon Musk-led agency tasked with downsizing the U.S. federal government. Internet protocol addresses leveraged by EGodly's "dataleak[.]fun" website from October 2022 to June 2023 were linked to DiamondCDN and other organizations owned by Coristine. The cybercrime ring also thanked DiamondCDN for its "DDoS protection and caching systems" in a Telegram message, digital records obtained by DomainTools and Any.Run revealed. While EGodly has touted its engagement in cryptocurrency heists, Latin American and Eastern European law enforcement email breaches, and phone number hijacking two years ago, Reuters has not affirmed such claims. However, the alleged connection between Coristine and EGodly has raised alarms for former CISA Deputy Director Nitin Nataranjan. "This stuff was not in the distant past. The recency of the activity and the types of groups he was associated would definitely be concerning," said Nataranjan.