Edward Coristin, a 19-year-old member of the DOGE team, also known as Big Balls, provided online support to the cybercriminal group EGodly, Reuters reports.
Since 2022, Coristin has run DiamondCDN, a company that provides DDoS protection and caching services, including for the dataleak.fun website, which was used by cybercriminals. In February 2023, EGodly thanked DiamondCDN for its help in securely hosting the site. The group was known for stealing phone numbers, hacking into the email accounts of law enforcement officers in Latin America, and stealing cryptocurrency. They also shared the personal information of an FBI agent who was investigating their activities.
Koristin also founded Tesla.Sexy LLC in 2021, when he was 16, and controlled several web domains, including Russian ones. One of them was used for Discord bots for the Russian market. Koristin was also fired from his cybersecurity practice on suspicion of leaking confidential information to a competitor.
Korystin's background raises questions about DOGE's employee vetting process. In addition, it was revealed that his great-grandfather worked for the KGB during the Cold War. This raises questions about the security and vetting of employees at technology companies who have access to sensitive information.