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Doge Teen with Cybercrime Connections Now Inside Cybersecurity Agency CISA
- keepamovin 2y ago[flagged]
- nobankai 2y ago[flagged]
- keepamovin 2y agoDemocracy not good enough fer ya? I'll explain: Because Elon was appointed by Trump who was appointed by the will of the American taxpayer? It should be commutative.
- Volundr 2y agoI don't understand why people think this means he should be given unilateral goodwill and authority. Honestly I don't think any of the people saying it really believes that. If they did, the same logic would apply to Biden and Obama and anyone questioning them would be questioning democracy. Yet somehow this 'will of the people so it must be good' only showed up when Trump was elected.
- keepamovin 2y agoIs he given that tho? Delegation is not infinite indulgence
- Volundr 2y agoBypassing the normal security procedures to ram a random person with a very shady background into our security apparatus seems like quite a lot of indulgence to me. I definitely don't believe Obama would have been granted the same.
- nobankai 2y agoThe line between infinite appointments augmented by a presidental pardon and infinite indulgence is pretty thin.
- john2x 2y agoOligarchs are technically American taxpayers
- cjonas 2y agoMost them pay less than the average dentist.
- WorkerBee28474 2y ago> Give me one (1) good reason to assume Elon's appointees are acting in the interests of American taxpayers. Because they are American taxpayers.
- free_bip 2y agoThat doesn't feel like a very convincing argument if you already believe that Elon, Donald, etc don't have the interests of the American taxpayers in mind... Given that they are also American taxpayers.
- WorkerBee28474 2y agoLet's be honest, if someone hates Elon/Donald/etc. then there is no argument that will convince them that everything they do isn't the worth thing to ever happen to America.
- nobankai 2y agoI don't passionately hate either, I just can't follow your logic. If these men are working to make six-figure salaries more profitable, then they could absolutely fuck over the majority of Americans while lining their own pockets and that of their employers. How are the real taxpaying Americans supposed to hold them accountable? Where is the oversight board looking to ensure essential social services stay available? It all seems like a recipe for disaster - love them or hate them, Elon and Trump have obvious conflicts of interest that make this process disturbing.
- deadbabe 2y agoThey get a % of the amount they save.
- wheelerwj 2y agoBullshit. That would create the most perverse incentive structure Ive seen. Possibly ever.
- FlamingMoe 2y agoOne good reason? Look at the financial state of the country. We’ve been running trillion-dollar deficits, ballooning debt, and unsustainable spending for years. If Musk’s appointees are doing the opposite of what got us here—cutting waste, streamlining bureaucracy, and questioning sacred cows—that’s at least some indication they might be acting in taxpayers’ interests. The real question isn’t why assume they are—it’s why assume the status quo was working in the first place.
- thelock85 2y agoSo the problem is the reason to assume goodwill from the people tasked with fixing it?
- chonkerz 2y agoI'd feel better about this effort if they just benched the kid and replaced him with someone else. DOGE of all people should know that people are replaceable. Why did they put him specifically, with all that baggage, inside a cybersecurity agency? This doesn't feel right.
- analog31 2y ago>>> why assume the status quo was working in the first place. Spending has been "unsustainable" for 40+ years, ever since Reagan gave up on trying to get his own party to reduce it. I'd say that's a pretty good indication that the status quo was working well enough.
- jrs235 2y agoPretty sure the US had a surplus in the 90's!
- dashundchen 2y agoAgain, this is so easily disproven. How are you buying this at all? Musk and Trump are not concerned about debt or spending. If they were, Trump and Republicans wouldn't be rushing a billionaire tax cut bill that will add tens of trillions of dollars to the national debt. If Trump cared about debt he wouldn't have run up $8 trillion in debt his last term with PPP helicopter money and more billionaire tax cuts.
- benatkin 2y agoThere's already a reasonable approach to this, which DOGE is opting out of. Those who are https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_hat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_hat are carefully given positions that require their specific skills, and aren't given run of the mill security sensitive IT roles.
- keepamovin 2y agoFair enough but is he really gray hat? We don't know. Or is he just whiter than white but walked in the shadow lands to gather sacred mushrooms?
- chonkerz 2y agoIf only they bothered to do a real background check
- keepamovin 2y agoI do agree that vetting would be a good idea - did they tho? We don't know. That's the thing. I guess DOGE is sorta like move fast and break things applied to gov? Hah :)
- benatkin 2y agoHe's either grey hat or deny hat...the allow hat ship sailed.
- keepamovin 2y agoI don't get your joke, but thanks! Heh :)
- benatkin 2y agoYou said whiter than white when I just gave a link to the page about grey hat hackers, not endorsing the name grey hat, so I said allow hat instead of white hat and deny hat instead if allow hat to mirror allowlist/denylist in place of whitelist/blacklist.
- cantSpellSober 2y agoYes unfortunately this is much more specific than "cyber researchers interacting with cybercriminals" > Coristine was fired from a company after leaking internal firm secrets to a competitor ...and now has physical access to building facilities at CISA
- keepamovin 2y agoI don't know, in those situations how can you tell? Based off of this reporting it's not conclusive. May have just been a junior they landed blame on for some issues with competitors?
- cantSpellSober 2y agoSure, maybe the teenage hacker was acting in good faith. > Based off of this reporting it's not conclusive. The (linked in article) Krebs article is pretty damning, including screenshots of why he was fired. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/#:~:text=According%20to%20that%20record%2C%20Path%20founder%20Marshal%20Webb%20dismissed%20Coristine%20for%20leaking%20internal%20documents%20to%20a%20competitor https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-...
- chonkerz 2y agoHe wasn't interacting with them as a researcher does. He was working for them as an employee. And then they fired him and accused him of leaking, and publicly humiliated him. No one even knows what this kid is doing inside CISA's network!!
- keepamovin 2y agoI think you're getting confused based on the article which says he was interacting with "The Com", and working for Path Networks which he was fired from for leaking.
- edm0nd 2y agoHe's not innocent. He was a member of the cybercrime skid community called "The Com" that is regularly involved with cryptocurrency thefts, ddos attacks, and sim swapping. It's not normal. Dude is a blackhat skid with some crazy access to shit he shouldnt have access to imo. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-...
- lostmsu 2y ago> archipelago of Discord and Telegram chat channels > He's not innocent. Are you for real?
- nobankai 2y agoThe recent KrebsOnSecurity goes into why this is no joke. These are cybercriminals trading in fraud, pig butchering, illegal pornography and swatting attempts.
- keepamovin 2y agoIsn't he just chatting on there? Can you point to something in the article that's conclusive? Seems like desperate reaching.
- nativeit 2y agoShouldn't this kind of high-level access to federal systems come with a bar that's higher than this? Shouldn't even the appearance of impropriety be sufficient to bar this person from these kinds of positions where the largest datasets of sensitive information are stored?
- keepamovin 2y agoOk, alright, well if that's the truth then I agree with you. I just don't happen to know whether he's blackhat or just infiltrating. Shrug.
- woodruffw 2y ago> The presumption of innocence should direct opinion, not implication, but the links should be noted. The standard in civil service is historically and conventionally "beyond even the appearance of impropriety," not "presumption of innocence." I think the person in question falls well below that standard.
- evanjrowley 2y agoThere's been a long-standing exception for hackers going back to the '90s, although this has changed in recent years because the cyber security field has become saturated. While at the DOJ under Janet Reno, my uncle bypassed all of that just to have random hackers from Black Hat pen-test USCIS. They even got arrested and let out of jail following a successful attempt to print a greencard for "Mr. Kan G. Roo" - Some exceptions to that rule have been employed in positions of authority for decades, and for good reason too.
- woodruffw 2y agoThe fact that hackers have been productive civil servants doesn't really change the standard. To make it explicit: there is no obvious mitigating qualification in this case.
- keepamovin 2y agoYeah, that makes sense based on my experience, tho the problem is appearance - they often fabricate it without substance - leads to a huge level abuse, and erodes trust in the authorities you thought you could. A system that rewards liars and punishes honesty is not good. I think it also contributes to a culture of corruption - ie, given how resistant some of these civil service positions are to being fired in practice, I wonder how much they carry their vaunted morals through. Once you're in: do whatever you please! This also supports the appearance - "we are beyond reproach so we couldn't be doing anything bad." Plus, the secrecy shield to block accountability. Likely all enables the level of corruption and perversion that's so obvious.
- hn_throwaway_99 2y agoThat's not what's going on here. This was discussed at length on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42981756
- keepamovin 2y agoNot sure the thread concludes what you think it does: top comment is basically a shrug this is normal.
- eightysixfour 2y agohttps://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/ https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-... The details are quite clear.
- keepamovin 2y agoCan you point to some? What I saw was tenuous at best. He was chatting with people in The Com. So...?
- mannyv 2y agoTakes one to know one. These days a criminal record is no bar for any computer-related thing...or at least it shouldn't be. However, it'd be prudent to monitor what they're keeping. Anyone who's any good will be keeping little nuggets of stuff for the future.
- Tadpole9181 2y agoTheir crime is, within the last 2 years, commiting corporate espionage? What in the world are you talking about - that is the literal definition of "should not be working with classified documents and every American's SSN".
- sepositus 2y agoIt'd be interesting to do as much investigative journaling as has been done into Coristine with others in this department. I've seen very few people survive the majority of the media apparatus going through their lives with a fine-tooth comb. And I'm not justifying anyone here. From my limited perspective, the guy doesn't belong anywhere near this place, but then again, I might have the same perspective for multiple people already operating there.
- chonkerz 2y agoOther members of DOGE are getting dissected for past racist posts, but I personally think that's a lot less interesting and concerning than the historical leak allegations against this dude. DOGE will fire everybody except their own people. I think that double standard drives even more interest.
- Eddy_Viscosity2 2y agoEducators have gotten pushed out for having attending a 2-day course on DEI in 2019 because of 'standards', I guess. But having a known leaker access to ALL the data is ok. Glad this administration is hiring people based purely on merit and qualifications <\s>. https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5123000-education-department-dei-trump/ https://thehill.com/homenews/education/5123000-education-dep...
- nunez 2y agoI'm more concerned about lesser-known DOGE staffers taking huge paydays for sharing some "there's no way this is really classified" classified information and getting away with it. Shenanigans like that usually land you in jail for 20+ years, but this is a presidential committee, so it's totally different.
- kreetx 2y agoNextgov, About: "Nextgov/FCW is owned by GovExec" [1] GovExec, About: "In March of 2020, we committed our entire organization to creating the leading sales and marketing intelligence company serving the public sector" (added emphasis) I.e, it may just be that the that the story is written by an organization that is losing it's funding. [1] https://www.nextgov.com/about/ https://www.nextgov.com/about/ [2] https://about.govexec.com/company/about/ https://about.govexec.com/company/about/