Alleged Member of Neo-Nazi Swatting Group Charged
Summary: Federal investigators arrested John William Kirby Kelley, a Virginia cybersecurity student at Old Dominion University, for allegedly helping run the "Deadnet" IRC channel used by a neo-Nazi group to plan swatting attacks on hundreds of people, including federal judges, corporate executives and roughly three dozen journalists. An FBI affidavit says Kelley's own swat of ODU in November 2018 - a false report of an AR-15 and pipe bombs - led to his identification after he called campus police a second time without masking his phone number.
Bottom line: The charge of conspiracy to make threats carries up to five years in prison, and the affidavit ties Deadnet members to Atomwaffen Division, a group whose members are suspected of multiple murders in the U.S. since 2017 - while the group's swatting videos function as recruitment propaganda for hate groups.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
- Topics
- Cybercrime & Law Enforcement
- Related
- Gootloader Malware Disrupted After Infecting 25,000 Computers Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026354 dark web vendors and buyers arrested in Operation Tor Nado Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026Law Enforcement Disrupts Gootloader, CastleRAT, and StealC Infrastructure Cyber Risks · Nov 13, 2026