Sagar Steven Singh, 20, and Nicholas Ceraolo, 26, members of the extortion group “Vile,” were charged last year for harvesting personal information and using it for doxing. The duo threatened to post victims’ information on a public website unless paid to remove it. According to the Department of Justice, they accessed a nonpublic law enforcement portal using a stolen password, obtaining sensitive information on narcotics and currency seizures, and law enforcement intelligence reports. Singh even threatened to harm a victim’s family unless given Instagram account credentials, demonstrating their ability to extract and exploit personal data from the database. The communication between Singh and Ceraolo revealed their awareness of the illegality of accessing the law enforcement portal and the potential misuse of its tools. Facing between two and seven years in prison for their actions, they are being prosecuted by the Department of Justice. “The defendants called themselves ‘ViLe’, and their actions were exactly that,” stated US Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Breon Peace, highlighting the severity of their crimes involving hacking into a law enforcement database and extorting victims by threatening to release sensitive information.
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