"Two Men Plead Guilty to Hacking Law Enforcement Database for Doxing"

Two men from New York and Rhode Island have recently pleaded guilty to hacking into a database maintained by a US federal law enforcement agency and using stolen personal information to extort people.  The Department of Justice (DoJ) said Sagar Steven Singh, 20, and Nicholas Ceraolo, 26, were part of an extortion group called Vile, which sought to harvest personal information and then post or threaten to post it on a public website, an action referred to as doxing.  Victims were then asked to pay the miscreants to have their personal information removed from the website.  According to the DoJ, the two used a stolen password for a law enforcement officer’s account to access a non-public portal containing information on narcotics and currency seizures, along with law enforcement intelligence reports.  The DoJ noted that Singh threatened to harm one victim’s family unless they provided the credentials for their Instagram accounts, sharing with the victim their personal information that was extracted from the database and claiming he could obtain information on anyone in the US.  Communication between Singh and Ceraolo shows that the two were aware that it was illegal for them to access the law enforcement portal.  They were also aware of the potential of the tools they could access through the portal.  The DoJ says that the two face between two and seven years in prison for their actions.  

SecurityWeek reports: "Two Men Plead Guilty to Hacking Law Enforcement Database for Doxing"