Virginia teen charged in 'swatting' ring linked to neo-Nazis
Source: Associated Press
Updated 9:43 am CST, Tuesday, January 14, 2020
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has charged a former Virginia college student with calling in fake emergencies to prompt law enforcement responses, in coordination with a group the FBI labelled as sympathetic to neo-Nazi ideology.
John William Kirby Kelley, 19, was charged last week with conspiracy to make threats. He's accused of being part of a network that “shared racist views” and had a “particular disdain for African Americans and Jewish people,” targeting such individuals in so-called swatting attacks coordinated in online chatrooms, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed Friday. Swatting is a practice in which fake emergencies are called in to authorities to draw a large law enforcement response.
The affidavit also said the group maintained a list of victims on a site called Doxbin, which hosts the personal information of journalists, government officials and company executives, news outlets reported.
An investigation into Kelley began in November 2018, when Old Dominion University in Norfolk received a call that someone armed with an AR-15 had hidden pipe bombs on campus. Police received a call hours later from someone with a similar voice who said he had dialed accidentally. Police and FBI investigators compared the voices on both calls and investigators matched email accounts and phone numbers connecting Kelley to the calls, the documents detailed.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/education/article/Virginia-teen-charged-in-swatting-ring-linked-14973476.php
Virginia Man with Links to Neo-Nazis Arrested in International Swatting Case
January 13, 2020
On January 10, 2020, federal authorities arrested 19-year-old John William Kirby Kelley of Vienna, Virginia, for his alleged role in a multi-national swatting and doxing case involving Canada, the United States and England. Kelley was charged with conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States, specifically interstate threats to injure. The arrest is part of a larger, ongoing international investigation.
ADL’s Center on Extremism (COE) assisted the Los Angeles Police Department and FBI throughout the broader investigation, analyzing thousands of online posts over several months. During this process, COE was able to identify an array of online profiles apparently linked to Kelley on Steam, Instagram, Github and Twitter.
“Swatting” is a harassment tactic in which a prank call is placed to emergency services (911), sending law enforcement officers (often a SWAT team) to a particular, targeted address. Doxing involves sharing someone’s personal information (which might include a home address, family information or workplace), often with the intention of causing some kind of harm.
In the Kelley case, much of the communication took place on the dark web, specifically the Deadnet Internet Relay Chat channel (IRC), also known as #Graveyard, which is similar to an online chat room. Some involved in these communications, including Kelley himself, were sympathetic to neo-Nazi ideology and were loosely associated with the neo-Nazi group, the Atomwaffen Division (AWD).
More:
https://www.adl.org/blog/virginia-man-with-links-to-neo-nazis-arrested-in-international-swatting-case
= new reply since forum marked as read
Being anonymous is damn near impossible in the digital world. If someone with nation state power wants to know about you, they will. My defense is being so damn boring and predictable, anyone tracking me would seriously consider suicide. 
