June 18, 2024 at 10:54AM
Two men, Sagar Steven Singh and Nicholas Ceraolo, admitted guilt in hacking a law enforcement database through their group “ViLE”. They extorted personal information for blackmail and faced charges in March 2023. Their activities involved accessing and threatening targeted individuals, with potential imprisonment sentences of two to seven years.
From the meeting notes, it is evident that two individuals, Sagar Steven Singh and Nicholas Ceraolo, pleaded guilty to hacking into a federal law enforcement database to steal personal information for extortion purposes. They were part of a hacking group called “ViLE” and used the stolen personal information to blackmail victims for financial gain.
The Department of Justice revealed that the two men accessed a restricted federal law enforcement database using a stolen police officer’s account credentials and obtained sensitive records about suspects, enforcement actions, and intelligence reports. They also used social media platforms to gather personal user information under false pretenses and delivered threats to targeted individuals.
The tactics employed included threatening to release personal information such as social security numbers, addresses, and email addresses unless their financial demands were met. They also engaged in other illegal activities such as selling people’s social media accounts for profit and attempting to hack and sell data from an online gaming platform.
It is also noted that internal communications retrieved and analyzed by law enforcement investigators demonstrated the full understanding and awareness of the illegal nature of their activities by Ceraolo and Singh, who also expressed fear of police raids.
It was mentioned that the U.S. DOJ has not provided details on the progress of ongoing investigations to identify and prosecute the remaining members of the hacking group “ViLE.”