A former U.S. Army Soldier convicted in a sprawling hacking and extortion scheme continued researching computer vulnerabilities after his arrest, using other inmates’ email accounts to obtain information from artificial intelligence about hacking techniques, improvised prison antennas and escaping custody, according to federal prosecutors.
Cameron John Wagenius, 22, was sentenced Sept. 25 to 70 months in federal prison after pleading guilty in two related cases in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington.
Prosecutors said Wagenius spent more than 18 months involved in cybercrime while serving on active duty, targeting telecommunications companies, stealing sensitive information and attempting to extort victims for more than $1 million.
But a sentencing memorandum filed by the government shortly before Wagenius was sentenced revealed another part of the case that received little attention in the Justice Department’s public announcement: prosecutors say Wagenius used commercial AI tools during his hacking activity and continued seeking help from AI after he was locked inside a federal detention center.
According to prosecutors, Wagenius and his co-conspirators developed a hacking program called “SSH Brute” that tried large numbers of username and password combinations to gain unauthorized access to computer servers.
The group allegedly shared stolen login information through Telegram. Prosecutors also said Wagenius made “malicious use” of a commercial AI tool while carrying out the hacking activity.
That use of AI apparently did not end when federal investigators caught up with him.
Federal agents searched the Texas Army installation where Wagenius was stationed on Dec. 4, 2024, and seized his electronic devices.
Two days later, his commanding officer ordered him not to use or purchase laptops, tablets, cellphones or similar technology. Wagenius acknowledged that he understood the order, according to prosecutors.
The next day, he allegedly bought another laptop.
Prosecutors said Wagenius used the laptop daily from Dec. 8 through Dec. 12, when Army investigators seized it under an order from a military magistrate. Investigators said the computer showed Wagenius had downloaded and used Proton VPN, a service that can help conceal a user’s online activity or location.
Wagenius was arrested later that month.
AI requests from inside federal detention
According to Bureau of Prisons records cited by prosecutors, Wagenius used another inmate’s email account around September 2025 to ask someone outside the detention center to submit questions to a commercial AI system.
One request sought information about known Windows security weaknesses that could allow a user to gain higher-level access to a computer system. Wagenius allegedly asked for working computer code that could be used to exploit each weakness.
About six days later, prosecutors say Wagenius used a different inmate’s email account to make another request.
This time, he allegedly asked AI for step-by-step instructions on exploiting a specific computer security flaw, including instructions to create working code if none was already available.
Prosecutors described the flaw as one that could allow an attacker to run commands with greater access than an ordinary user should have.
But the requests did not stop with computer hacking.
Wagenius also allegedly asked someone to have AI explain how to make an antenna inside a prison using commissary items or other readily available materials in order to improve radio reception.
Prosecutors said he also requested research on escaping prison.
In several instances, Wagenius framed the AI requests as research for a book he was writing.
Prosecutors described that as an attempt to disguise what he was asking for and get around safeguards designed to prevent commercial AI systems from providing potentially harmful computer code.
The government did not accuse Wagenius of actually attempting to physically escape from the detention center.
Prosecutors also acknowledged they found no evidence that Wagenius successfully used the computer exploits against Bureau of Prisons systems.
When questioned, Wagenius reportedly said he never ran the code produced through the AI requests and claimed he was researching possible security weaknesses so he could provide the information to the Bureau of Prisons.
The Bureau of Prisons nevertheless investigated.
According to the government, the agency concluded Wagenius had used the federal prison email accounts of two other inmates to obtain information from an outside AI system about the computer operating system used by the Bureau of Prisons.
Prosecutors said the activity forced BOP to devote resources to investigating and addressing a potential threat to computer systems used by thousands of inmates.
Hacking while serving in the Army
The AI activity was only one part of a much larger cybercrime operation.
Prosecutors said Wagenius participated in hacking and fraud-related Telegram groups beginning no later than April 2023 and worked with others to break into victim computer networks, steal sensitive customer information and demand money in exchange for not releasing it.
In one case involving a foreign telecommunications company, prosecutors said Wagenius and his co-conspirators used their password-guessing tool to gain initial access to the company’s network.
They then allegedly moved deeper into the company’s systems and stole gigabytes of sensitive information.
Wagenius later demanded $500,000 in cryptocurrency and threatened to leak the company’s data if it refused to pay, according to the government.
In another case, prosecutors said Wagenius sought $200,000 from a U.S. telecommunications company to prevent stolen customer information from being released.
The government also alleges Wagenius attempted to sell stolen information to what he believed was a foreign military intelligence service while he was still serving in the Army and holding a security clearance.
Prosecutors said Wagenius used encrypted communications and promoted the stolen material as useful for locating high-ranking government and military officials in another country.
At one point, prosecutors said Wagenius also told a co-conspirator he would use military resources to determine whether certain stolen information belonged to the National Security Agency.
Federal investigators separately discovered that Wagenius possessed thousands of stolen identity documents, including passports and driver’s licenses, according to the sentencing memorandum. That conduct was not separately charged in the cases for which he was sentenced, and prosecutors said they did not know whether the people whose documents were stolen suffered additional harm.
Government points to AI as growing cybercrime concern
Three corporate victims reported combined losses totaling $294,978.38.
Despite the scale of the scheme, prosecutors said Wagenius personally made only about $1,500 from selling stolen information. The government said he and his co-conspirators nevertheless attempted to extort more than $1 million from victims.
The sentencing memorandum used Wagenius’s case to make a broader argument about the growing role of artificial intelligence in cybercrime.
Prosecutors argued that improvements in AI are making advanced hacking techniques more accessible to people who may not otherwise have the technical ability to develop those tools themselves.
The government wrote that people with access to Telegram and commercial AI systems can increasingly create sophisticated programs capable of stealing sensitive information and supporting crimes such as phishing and SIM swapping.
Prosecutors specifically cited Wagenius as an example of someone who was able to improve his hacking capabilities through technology and assistance from others.
Federal sentencing guidelines called for between 111 and 132 months in prison across Wagenius’s convictions, according to the government.
Prosecutors instead requested 70 months, three years of supervised release and $294,978.38 in restitution.
U.S. District Judge Lauren King imposed the requested 70-month sentence on Sept. 25.
The case presents an unusual example of how commercial AI tools can become intertwined with cybercrime at multiple stages.
According to prosecutors, Wagenius used AI while participating in hacking activity as an active-duty Soldier — and continued trying to obtain AI-generated information about computer exploits, prison-made antennas and escaping custody even after his arrest and detention.
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