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Former U.S. Army soldier Cameron John Wagenius pleaded guilty to hacking telecommunication companies and attempting to extort them by threatening to release stolen files, the Department of Justice announced<\/a> on Tuesday.<\/p>\n According to the DOJ, Wagenius, who went online with the nickname \u201ckiberphant0m,\u201d conspired to defraud 10 victim companies by stealing their login credentials, using brute force attacks<\/a> and other techniques, and then used Telegram group chats to transfer the stolen credentials and discusses hacks.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wagenius and his conspirators also attempted to extort their victims in private and in public, including on hacking forums such as the notorious BreachForums<\/a>. They sold some of the stolen data and also used the stolen credentials to commit other frauds, including SIM swapping<\/a> victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Wagenius had already pleaded guilty<\/a> to hacking AT&T and Verizon, a breach that led to him stealing a massive amount of call records.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Wagenius\u2019 sentencing is scheduled for October 6, and he faces 20 years in prison, according to the press release.\u00a0<\/p>\n The hacker has been linked to a series of hacks that originated from the breach of could computing services giant Snowflake<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n