Read any Heinlein? Particularly Starship Troopers? Or Vonnegut's Player Piano? Or... any dystopia where democracy is meaningless? Which it is now more than ever.
DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers
Experts question whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background check typically required for access to sensitive US government systems.
A young technologist known online as “Big Balls,” who works for Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has access to sensitive US government systems. But his professional and online history call into question whether he would pass the background check typically required to obtain security clearances, security experts tell WIRED.
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old high school graduate, established at least five different companies in the last four years, with entities registered in Connecticut, Delaware, and the United Kingdom, most of which were not listed on his now-deleted LinkedIn profile. Coristine also briefly worked in 2022 at Path Network, a network monitoring firm known for hiring reformed blackhat hackers. Someone using a Telegram handle tied to Coristine also solicited a cyberattack-for-hire service later that year.
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
It's not always easy to predict which media property will cover a story with which particular slant, because, contrary to the myth, I don't think they're always taking their orders directly from head office.
Thst said, if I was looking for a self-interest angle, I would observe that, from what I've seen, the WSJ is really not happy about Trump's tariff fetish.
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
Well, not just him, but his evil and deranged minions as well. I certainly have no desire whatever to go to a place described as resembling the most boring disused quarry on Earth.
Well, not just him, but his evil and deranged minions as well. I certainly have no desire whatever to go to a place described as resembling the most boring disused quarry on Earth.
Awww, there’s a great big beautiful pink glass castle, though. No wait, that’s just in “Watchmen”—never mind.
Vetted by Musk for hacking and data manipulation capabilities, no doubt. I’ve no doubt they are IT-smart. Moral? How would he know? And even if he did, would he care?
Goes to show these people were never properly vetted.
Is there any indication they were vetted at all?
New Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (approved 68-29 by the Senate) claims that Musk's people have been vetted, at least one by himself personally. He made this claim before the WSJ story exposing Mr. Elez as a racist and eugenicist was published. So we have the word of a Trump loyalist and (former?) hedge fund manager that everything is on the level.
Vetted by Musk for hacking and data manipulation capabilities, no doubt. I’ve no doubt they are IT-smart.
I wouldn't bank on it. One of them was on Xitter 2 months ago asking if there was an LLM to convert between Excel, json, html and various other file types. That's not an IT-smart question, that's an "I've never had a job involving data" question.
Vetted by Musk for hacking and data manipulation capabilities, no doubt. I’ve no doubt they are IT-smart. Moral? How would he know? And even if he did, would he care?
I think he'd find morality a hindrance that would make them less useful to him.
I wonder if this came up during whatever "vetting" Bessent claims happened to Musk's people.
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing US government agencies, was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor.
“Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors,” said a June 2022 message from an executive of the firm, Path Network, which was seen by Bloomberg News. “This is unacceptable and there is zero tolerance for this.”
A spokesperson for the Arizona-based hosting and data-security firm said Thursday: “I can confirm that Edward Coristine's brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure.”
Afterward, Coristine wrote that he’d retained access to the cybersecurity company’s computers, though he said he hadn’t taken advantage of it.
“I had access to every single machine,” he wrote on Discord in late 2022, weeks after he was dismissed from Path Network, according to messages seen by Bloomberg. Posting under the name “Rivage,” which six people who know him said was his alias, Coristine said he could have wiped Path’s customer-supporting servers if he’d wished. He added, "I never exploited it because it's just not me."
Yeah, I'm sure giving this guy access to millions of Americans' personal information won't be problematic in any way whatsoever. [/sarcasm]
I'm encouraging good actors where I can see them, and there are many. I can also focus on building life in my own community.
There's always stuff you can do. It's just not always enough to save the big things.
One thing I've noticed...being close to someone who works in an odd corner of the social welfare state...even red states understand that "leaving people to starve" is bad public policy. They just don't talk about that fact as openly as blue states do. There's a certain space where being human makes economic common sense anymore and...these assholes are going to have to learn that the hard way.
It is going to royally suck in the short run, but their way doesn't win the long run, because earnestly, I don't think any of them care about the long run.
The think about Musk and trump is they always need to be the smartest people in the room. Sadly, because they are not very clever*, that means the people around them need to be very very stupid.
* I know some people think he is a genius for, lets see, inheriting a lot of money and owning stuff. Personally, I disagree.
If he doesn’t offer IT-smart, then it must be unthinking loyalty.
Not loyalty so much as sycophancy, which can look the same but isn't.
What we are seeing is what happens when one person - who is already slightly unhinged - has effectively little or no restraints on their behaviour coupled with virtually infinite resources.
The old old argument about public service staffing is that it is full of incompetent people doing unnecessary things badly.
An old argument with no basis in reality. Public service staffing is invariably filled by highly qualified people who have a desire to serve the public. Just because someone decides against trying to screw as much money from others for their own gain does not make them incompetent, nor does it make what they do unnecessary.
I wonder if this came up during whatever "vetting" Bessent claims happened to Musk's people.
Edward Coristine, a 19-year-old member of Elon Musk’s squad that’s criss-crossing US government agencies, was fired from an internship after he was accused of sharing information with a competitor.
“Edward has been terminated for leaking internal information to the competitors,” said a June 2022 message from an executive of the firm, Path Network, which was seen by Bloomberg News. “This is unacceptable and there is zero tolerance for this.”
Krebs has another article on his website, detailing Coristine's alleged connections with a hacking collective called 'The Com', who were among other things connected to the O9A (a Neo-Nazi group) as well as groups that were grooming teenagers for various kinds of abuse.
The old old argument about public service staffing is that it is full of incompetent people doing unnecessary things badly.
An old argument with no basis in reality. Public service staffing is invariably filled by highly qualified people who have a desire to serve the public. Just because someone decides against trying to screw as much money from others for their own gain does not make them incompetent, nor does it make what they do unnecessary.
I’m a retired public servant. I know it’s a form of private sector prejudice!
My point was that it was definitely unqualified and probably incompetent people from the private sector making career-terminating judgments about incorrectly alleged incompetents in the public sector.
Of course there is some incompetence in the public sector. That doesn’t justify prejudgement by the biased.
The old old argument about public service staffing is that it is full of incompetent people doing unnecessary things badly.
An old argument with no basis in reality. Public service staffing is invariably filled by highly qualified people who have a desire to serve the public. Just because someone decides against trying to screw as much money from others for their own gain does not make them incompetent, nor does it make what they do unnecessary.
I've spent my life with a certain kind of arsehole quipping that public sector workers like me wouldn't last two minutes in the Real World.
What would either of those arseholes know about the real world???
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Now, whether they know the right things for their positions is another question.
What would either of those arseholes know about the real world???
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Now, whether they know the right things for their positions is another question.
I dread to think what the pair of them will make (or unmake) of the Real World by the end of this year...
What would either of those arseholes know about the real world???
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Now, whether they know the right things for their positions is another question.
Trump came from a wealthy family that made millions in the New York City Real Estate market. Trump himself claimed he got a 14-million-dollar loan to start his casino business but it has been determined he actually inherited around $400 million dollars through various trusts. https://apnews.com/article/0452d29cd2564eaf97605ab90acc3a67
Trump did not start out as a maintenance worker in his dad's rental apartments. He was on top of the food chain from the beginning.
Same with Elon Musk. He came from a wealthy South African family. His mother was a model of Cover Girl and his father was an engineer. From the beginning he was rather bookish and introverted. His parents were worried he might have been deaf. He did have a knack for programing early on, though. He did not come from Soweto. https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/elon-musk#where-is-elon-musk-from
So don't tell me these men were relatively nobodies. Neither of them had dirt under their nails from hard work.
What would either of those arseholes know about the real world???
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Now, whether they know the right things for their positions is another question.
Trump came from a wealthy family that made millions in the New York City Real Estate market. Trump himself claimed he got a 14-million-dollar loan to start his casino business but it has been determined he actually inherited around $400 million dollars through various trusts. https://apnews.com/article/0452d29cd2564eaf97605ab90acc3a67
Trump did not start out as a maintenance worker in his dad's rental apartments. He was on top of the food chain from the beginning.
Same with Elon Musk. He came from a wealthy South African family. His mother was a model of Cover Girl and his father was an engineer. From the beginning he was rather bookish and introverted. His parents were worried he might have been deaf. He did have a knack for programing early on, though. He did not come from Soweto. https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/elon-musk#where-is-elon-musk-from
So don't tell me these men were relatively nobodies. Neither of them had dirt under their nails from hard work.
I didn't say they went from rags to riches. There are lots of intergenerational tycoons in America, but most of them probably don't have the political skills to get themselves into the White House.
Trump went from being a bog-standard property developer, to garnering a major presence in the national media by doing not much besides being a NYC partygoer, and then to his own nationwide reality-show, and used that a springboard to winning the presidency twice.
So, yeah, I'd say he does have a good handle on how certain things work.
Vetted by Musk for hacking and data manipulation capabilities, no doubt. I’ve no doubt they are IT-smart.
I wouldn't bank on it. One of them was on Xitter 2 months ago asking if there was an LLM to convert between Excel, json, html and various other file types. That's not an IT-smart question, that's an "I've never had a job involving data" question.
WTF? That's a question that doesn't even make sense. I mean, can you convert between various file types with a LLM? Probably. Should you? Almost certainly not.
Vetted by Musk for hacking and data manipulation capabilities, no doubt. I’ve no doubt they are IT-smart.
I wouldn't bank on it. One of them was on Xitter 2 months ago asking if there was an LLM to convert between Excel, json, html and various other file types. That's not an IT-smart question, that's an "I've never had a job involving data" question.
WTF? That's a question that doesn't even make sense. I mean, can you convert between various file types with a LLM? Probably. Should you? Almost certainly not.
You know that, I know that. Musk's wunderkind does not.
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
What on earth makes you think the New York Times is liberal media?
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
What on earth makes you think the New York Times is liberal media?
He said "Liberal media my ass" which I take to mean that it has a reputation for being liberal media, but the reputation is undeserved.
What would either of those arseholes know about the real world???
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Some sources believe that the richest person in the world is actually Vladimir Putin. It's just that the personal wealth of kleptocrats isn't the kind of thing that shows up in SEC statements or publicly traded share prices so it's much harder to gauge. And that's before trying to figure out where the line is between a dictator's personal wealth and the national fisc, or if such a line exists in any meaningful sense.
I still say they were not relative no bodies. As I pointed out, both came from wealthy families. Not sure of Musk's family social standing in SA, but the Trumps were big people in NYC, though the bluebloods of NY did not exactly accept their status. They contributed heavily in politics--on both sides, depending on which party offered them the best deal
I don't want to usurp Elon's thread and talk about Don, though.
I still say they were not relative no bodies. As I pointed out, both came from wealthy families. Not sure of Musk's family social standing in SA, . . .
The Musks were from a group sometimes referred to by Afrikaners with the derogatory term "soutpiel". Translation sout = salt, piel = penis, meaning that they had one foot in South Africa and another in the UK. This was a way of implying a less fervent loyalty to South Africa as a nation. So while wealthy, the Musks had that stigma attached to them, at least in the eyes of Afrikaners.
I still say they were not relative no bodies. As I pointed out, both came from wealthy families. Not sure of Musk's family social standing in SA, . . .
The Musks were from a group sometimes referred to by Afrikaners with the derogatory term "soutpiel". Translation sout = salt, piel = penis, meaning that they had one foot in South Africa and another in the UK. This was a way of implying a less fervent loyalty to South Africa as a nation. So while wealthy, the Musks had that stigma attached to them, at least in the eyes of Afrikaners.
And just when you think you've learned everything awful there was to learn about apartheid, you learn something new. And of course there's an absurd vulgarism for it.
Comments
Don't panic!!
Just. Make. It. Stop. :beating head against wall:
There's more background on this story here, by Brian Krebs (a reasonably respected infosec professional):
https://infosec.exchange/@briankrebs/113957683483583881
Goes to show these people were never properly vetted.
It was probably comments about wiping out Israel along with Gaza that did for him.
I'd just like to take a moment to note that the Wall Street fucking Journal (a Rupert Murdoch owned enterprise) is doing a better job of covering the second Trump administration than the New York fucking Times. Liberal media my ass.
It's not always easy to predict which media property will cover a story with which particular slant, because, contrary to the myth, I don't think they're always taking their orders directly from head office.
Thst said, if I was looking for a self-interest angle, I would observe that, from what I've seen, the WSJ is really not happy about Trump's tariff fetish.
Ooo what an Edgelord. Or twat, if you prefer.
When's the next departure for Mars?
If Musk will be there, as he plans, count me out. Maybe we could start a fund to just send him there…
Awww, there’s a great big beautiful pink glass castle, though. No wait, that’s just in “Watchmen”—never mind.
New Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent (approved 68-29 by the Senate) claims that Musk's people have been vetted, at least one by himself personally. He made this claim before the WSJ story exposing Mr. Elez as a racist and eugenicist was published. So we have the word of a Trump loyalist and (former?) hedge fund manager that everything is on the level.
I wouldn't bank on it. One of them was on Xitter 2 months ago asking if there was an LLM to convert between Excel, json, html and various other file types. That's not an IT-smart question, that's an "I've never had a job involving data" question.
I think he'd find morality a hindrance that would make them less useful to him.
Yeah, I'm sure giving this guy access to millions of Americans' personal information won't be problematic in any way whatsoever. [/sarcasm]
I'm encouraging good actors where I can see them, and there are many. I can also focus on building life in my own community.
There's always stuff you can do. It's just not always enough to save the big things.
One thing I've noticed...being close to someone who works in an odd corner of the social welfare state...even red states understand that "leaving people to starve" is bad public policy. They just don't talk about that fact as openly as blue states do. There's a certain space where being human makes economic common sense anymore and...these assholes are going to have to learn that the hard way.
It is going to royally suck in the short run, but their way doesn't win the long run, because earnestly, I don't think any of them care about the long run.
Sums it up, really.
@Arethosemyfeet
If he doesn’t offer IT-smart, then it must be unthinking loyalty.
Given their abilities, I'm sure that access will soon be shared with many other people, occasionally even on purpose.
* I know some people think he is a genius for, lets see, inheriting a lot of money and owning stuff. Personally, I disagree.
*ding ding* we have a winner. What we have here is a bunch of script kiddy Musk fanboys.
Not loyalty so much as sycophancy, which can look the same but isn't.
What we are seeing is what happens when one person - who is already slightly unhinged - has effectively little or no restraints on their behaviour coupled with virtually infinite resources.
The old old argument about public service staffing is that it is full of incompetent people doing unnecessary things badly.
So let’s use people of dubious competence to decide who stays and who goes. Simples!
It's purely instrumental. Musk judges people on whether they agree with him and laugh at his jokes
Krebs has another article on his website, detailing Coristine's alleged connections with a hacking collective called 'The Com', who were among other things connected to the O9A (a Neo-Nazi group) as well as groups that were grooming teenagers for various kinds of abuse.
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/02/teen-on-musks-doge-team-graduated-from-the-com/
people have started calling
Teslas swasticars.
So, don't share this.
I’m a retired public servant. I know it’s a form of private sector prejudice!
My point was that it was definitely unqualified and probably incompetent people from the private sector making career-terminating judgments about incorrectly alleged incompetents in the public sector.
Of course there is some incompetence in the public sector. That doesn’t justify prejudgement by the biased.
I've spent my life with a certain kind of arsehole quipping that public sector workers like me wouldn't last two minutes in the Real World.
Well, they've both managed to go from being relative nobodies to being, respectively, the most powerful and the wealthiest person in the world, so I'd guess they have at least some idea how certain things work.
Now, whether they know the right things for their positions is another question.
I dread to think what the pair of them will make (or unmake) of the Real World by the end of this year...
Trump came from a wealthy family that made millions in the New York City Real Estate market. Trump himself claimed he got a 14-million-dollar loan to start his casino business but it has been determined he actually inherited around $400 million dollars through various trusts. https://apnews.com/article/0452d29cd2564eaf97605ab90acc3a67
Trump did not start out as a maintenance worker in his dad's rental apartments. He was on top of the food chain from the beginning.
Same with Elon Musk. He came from a wealthy South African family. His mother was a model of Cover Girl and his father was an engineer. From the beginning he was rather bookish and introverted. His parents were worried he might have been deaf. He did have a knack for programing early on, though. He did not come from Soweto. https://www.biography.com/business-leaders/elon-musk#where-is-elon-musk-from
So don't tell me these men were relatively nobodies. Neither of them had dirt under their nails from hard work.
I didn't say they went from rags to riches. There are lots of intergenerational tycoons in America, but most of them probably don't have the political skills to get themselves into the White House.
Trump went from being a bog-standard property developer, to garnering a major presence in the national media by doing not much besides being a NYC partygoer, and then to his own nationwide reality-show, and used that a springboard to winning the presidency twice.
So, yeah, I'd say he does have a good handle on how certain things work.
WTF? That's a question that doesn't even make sense. I mean, can you convert between various file types with a LLM? Probably. Should you? Almost certainly not.
You know that, I know that. Musk's wunderkind does not.
What on earth makes you think the New York Times is liberal media?
He said "Liberal media my ass" which I take to mean that it has a reputation for being liberal media, but the reputation is undeserved.
Some sources believe that the richest person in the world is actually Vladimir Putin. It's just that the personal wealth of kleptocrats isn't the kind of thing that shows up in SEC statements or publicly traded share prices so it's much harder to gauge. And that's before trying to figure out where the line is between a dictator's personal wealth and the national fisc, or if such a line exists in any meaningful sense.
I don't want to usurp Elon's thread and talk about Don, though.
The Musks were from a group sometimes referred to by Afrikaners with the derogatory term "soutpiel". Translation sout = salt, piel = penis, meaning that they had one foot in South Africa and another in the UK. This was a way of implying a less fervent loyalty to South Africa as a nation. So while wealthy, the Musks had that stigma attached to them, at least in the eyes of Afrikaners.
And just when you think you've learned everything awful there was to learn about apartheid, you learn something new. And of course there's an absurd vulgarism for it.
Got a source for that?