Australian Authorities Arrest Two Alleged Members of TeamPCP Supply Chain Syndicate

Australian Authorities Arrest Two Alleged Members of TeamPCP Supply Chain Syndicate The Australian Federal Police arrested two men in Western Australia accused of participating in TeamPCP, a cybercrime syndicate responsible for widespread open-source software supply chain compromises affecting thousands of organizations. Australian authorities arrested Ruben Ian Thomson, 21, and Michael Gaebler, 23, charging them with a combined 14 cybercrime offenses. TeamPCP leveraged a self-propagating worm named Shai-Hulud to compromise GitHub repositories, NPM packages, and over 2,500 organizations through an attack on the LiteLLM gateway. Investigators and threat intelligence firms linked multiple cybercrime aliases to Thomson via overlapping IP addresses between South Africa and Perth, shared credentials, and corporate filings. The syndicate's extensive attacks prompted coding platforms, including GitHub and Python ecosystems, to introduce new security cooldown mechanisms. Supply Chain Exploitation via Shai-Hulud Emerging in late 2025, TeamPCP executed a continuous cycle of software supply chain attacks. Threat actors compromised networks maintaining popular open-source software, installed malware on developer systems, and harvested credentials to push malicious package updates. The syndicate deployed Shai-Hulud, a self-propagating worm that infiltrated platforms such as GitHub and NPM, and held a competition awarding cryptocurrency based on downloads of infected code. In one incident involving the AI gateway LiteLLM, the group harvested cloud secrets from more than 2,500 organizations, while an infected developer extension later compromised at least 3,800 GitHub repositories. Investigative Attribution and Perth Arrests Intelligence analysts and researchers tracked TeamPCP's communications to 'Cybercats,' a Matrix chat server hosting multiple threat actors and data brokers. Multiple security firms linked key syndicate handles to an email and IP trail stretching from South Africa to Cottesloe, Western Australia. Passive DNS records, password reuse, and cross-platform registrations connected aliases to 21-year-old Ruben Thomson and 23-year-old Michael Gaebler. Thomson admitted to operating under the alias 'Ellis' and making roughly $20,000 before allegedly departing in March 2026. The Australian Federal Police arrested both men in Perth on a combined 14 offenses, with Thomson denied bail. The Role of AI and Platform Defenses Security analysts observed that TeamPCP operated as a loosely organized peer group blending financial extortion, attention-seeking, and ideological elements. The group's rapid execution reflected how large language models shorten the window required to turn attack concepts into operational campaigns, enabling noisy actors to generate extensive damage without conventional operational discipline. However, the high-profile breach of GitHub repositories forced platforms to adopt stronger safeguards, leading GitHub, Python, and JavaScript platforms to implement package cooldown periods designed to give maintainers time to catch and remediate poisoned software.

澳大利亚警方逮捕两名涉嫌开源供应链黑客组织TeamPCP的成员 澳大利亚联邦警察逮捕了两名涉嫌属于网络犯罪团伙TeamPCP的年轻男子。该组织被控利用恶意开源软件发动长期的供应链攻击并勒索数千家全球企业，调查人员与情报机构通过数字足迹锁定了两名嫌疑人。 西澳大利亚州警方逮捕了21岁的Ruben Ian Thomson和23岁的Michael Gaebler，两人共面临14项网络犯罪指控且均被羁押。 TeamPCP利用名为Shai-Hulud的蠕虫在GitHub和NPM等平台感染开源工具，导致包括LiteLLM和GitHub内部数千个代码库被攻破，波及数千家企业凭证。 调查人员通过论坛账号、南非与澳大利亚的IP地址记录、密码复用及商业登记追踪到了Thomson的真实身份。 安全专家指出，TeamPCP展现了AI与大语言模型如何大幅降低网络攻击门槛，同时该团伙的攻击倒逼GitHub等平台推出了冷却期等安全防护机制。 两名核心涉案人员在珀斯被捕 澳大利亚联邦警察在西澳大利亚州逮捕了21岁的Ruben Ian Thomson和23岁的Michael Gaebler。两人共面临14项网络犯罪指控，并在珀斯地方法院出庭。据ABC新闻报道，Thomson被拒绝保释，Gaebler的律师未申请保释，两人均被还押候审至9月18日。Gaebler被指为Matrix聊天服务器Cybercats的管理员@pcpcasper，其Telegram活动被指与澳大利亚新纳粹组织国家社会主义网络有关联。 供应链攻击机制与严重危害 TeamPCP自2025年底出现，其攻击模式依赖循环利用：攻击者攻破流行开源工具开发者的网络植入恶意软件，窃取凭据后再发布恶意更新，并通过自传播蠕虫Shai-Hulud感染GitHub和NPM上的代码库。CloudSEK分析指出，该组织在2026年3月对开源AI网关LiteLLM的攻击中窃取了2500多家机构的云密钥，包括大型科技公司；5月，一名GitHub开发者安装恶意插件导致至少3800个代码库沦陷。TeamPCP还发布了蠕虫源代码并设立门罗币悬赏竞赛，按恶意包下载量评分招募黑客。 数字足迹与嫌疑人身份溯源 安全机构Intel 471、SpyCloud、DomainTools与Constella Intelligence联合追踪发现，TeamPCP发言人使用的论坛账号注册邮箱与南非及西澳珀斯的IP地址存在关联，进一步反向解析指向了从南非迁往珀斯的Thomson家族私有服务器。调查人员通过密码复用、关联邮箱以及澳大利亚工商登记记录，锁定了Ruben Thomson的名下企业及其使用的多个黑客别名。Thomson在接受KrebsOnSecurity采访时承认参与TeamPCP并获利约2万美元，称其在流浪并戒毒两个月后转向网络犯罪，但声称已于3月退出且未表达悔意。 新型威胁模式与安全生态反思 Aikido Security安全研究员Charlie Eriksen指出，TeamPCP融合了金钱、破坏、关注和意识形态动机，代表了一种新型威胁角色。大语言模型等AI工具大幅压缩了攻击技术从研究到实际落地的周期，使得缺乏传统操作纪律的黑客也能规模化发起严重破坏。尽管如此，Eriksen认为该组织的恶劣攻击迫使微软和GitHub在7月为Dependabot引入了3天的冷却机制，Python与JavaScript生态也相继跟进，在客观上推动了行业长期忽视的供应链防护建设。

Authorities in Australia have arrested two men believed to be members of **TeamPCP**, a prolific cybercrime and data extortion group blamed for perpetrating the longest running spree of software supply chain attacks ever. In [a statement](https://www.afp.gov.au/news-centre/media-release/two-wa-men-charged-following-afp-fbi-wapf-disruption-alleged-global) released today, the **Australian Federal Police** (AFP) said two men from Western Australia, aged 21 and 23, were arrested in connection with a “sophisticated cybercrime syndicate that allegedly created malicious open-source software to rob thousands of global businesses.” The AFP did not name the defendants, but KrebsOnSecurity learned the 21-year-old suspect’s real identity in June, and has been communicating with him ever since. This story includes interviews with TeamPCP’s self-described spokesperson, and examines clues left behind by the TeamPCP leader that likely led to his undoing. TeamPCP vaulted onto the cybercrime scene in late 2025, embedding malicious code in hundreds of open source software tools and extorting victims for profit. Members of the group made headlines by compromising corporate cloud environments using a self-propagating worm dubbed **Shai-Hulud**, which added malicious code to open source programs maintained by developers whose credentials at public code repositories like GitHub or NPM were phished or stolen. Writing for *Wired*, journalist **Andy Greenberg** described TeamPCP’s core tactic as a kind of cyclical exploitation of software developers. “The hackers gain access to a network where an open source tool commonly used by coders is being developed,” Greenberg [wrote in May](https://www.wired.com/story/teampcp-software-supply-chain-attack-spree-github/). “The hackers plant malware in the tool that ends up on other software developers’ machines, including some who are writing other tools intended to be used by coders. The malware allows TeamPCP’s hackers to steal credentials that let them publish malicious versions of those software development tools, too. The cycle repeats, and TeamPCP’s collection of breached networks grows.” TeamPCP also has practiced something akin to cyclical recruitment. In May, the source code for the third iteration of Shai-Hulud was published online, and TeamPCP soon after launched a contest offering $1,000 in virtual currency to whichever participant could conduct the largest supply chain operation using the worm’s code. According to the contest rules, participants were scored based on the number of weekly and monthly downloads of packages they compromised — directly incentivizing them to target the most popular code libraries. “TeamPCP has stated the competition is a recruiting opportunity and they intend to purchase all meaningful access harvested from participants’ campaigns,” the security firm Dataminr [wrote](https://www.dataminr.com/resources/cyber-intel-deep-dive-teampcp-shai-hulud-3-0/). “The $1,000 XMR (Monero) prize is a recruitment floor and has been dismissed by the actor as ‘just like participation trophy,’ adding ‘if you find something good you will be paid way more,’ confirming the contest’s true function as talent identification and malicious access acquisition at scale.” In March, TeamPCP executed a supply chain attack targeting AI infrastructure by compromising the code for **LiteLLM**, an open source AI gateway that connects users to more than 100 different large language models. A [recent analysis](https://www.cloudsek.com/blog/ai-supply-chain-breach-2500-companies-434000-cicd-pipelines#) by the security firm **CloudSEK** found TeamPCPs attack on LiteLLM harvested cloud service keys and other secrets from more than 2,500 organizations, including many of the world’s top technology companies. In May, TeamPCP claimed credit for compromising at least 3,800 code repositories at the Microsoft-owned **GitHub**, after a GitHub developer installed a code extension that was compromised by TeamPCP’s malware. Security experts say TeamPCP is less of a hacker group than an amalgamation of threat actors from multiple cybercriminal gangs who sometimes work together toward similar goals. “It is not a structured criminal crew with a single operator,” said **Austin Larsen**, a principal threat analyst with the **Google Threat Intelligence Group**. “It is a peer community of individually-skilled actors, with one clear center of gravity.” That center of gravity is **George Prepakis**, an accomplished security researcher and self-described exploit developer who operates the Twitter/X profile [@kernelstub](https://x.com/kernelstub). Earlier this year, @kernelstub tweeted a public invite link to a Matrix chat server he created and dubbed “Cybercats,” and TeamPCP and several other cybercrime entities have been using this server to communicate daily for the past several months. Kernelstub, like other administrators in the Cybercats chat, has been using his Twitter/X profile name as his handle in these Matrix communications, frequently tweeting references to other members and to conversations taking place in the Cybercats chat. In a number of cases, the corresponding X accounts for members of the Cybercats chat taunted cybercrime victims publicly before the incidents were reported in the news media. The Cybercats administrator listed at the top of the screenshot above — “**Boxturtle**” — is a close associate of TeamPCP who has been tweeting about the group’s conquests under the name [@xpl0itrsturtle](https://x.com/xploitrsturtle2/). This handle corresponds to a data breach broker active on Breachforums and Darkforums who has been selling data stolen in a wave of recent breaches at automobile manufacturers, including **BMW Group**, **Audi**, **Honda**, **Mercedes-Benz**, **Volvo** and **Toyota**, as well as data allegedly taken from **Snapchat** and **SportRadar**. The Cybercats administrator “**SeesawSec**” in the screenshot above is the alias of whoever is behind the cybercrime group known as **Fulcrumsec**, which recently claimed credit for data extortion attacks against the pharmaceutical giant **Novo Nordisk**, the data broker **LexisNexis**, and **Avnet**, a Fortune 500 distributor of electronic components. The Cybercats administrator “**@pcpcasper**” also has been using a similar name on X to discuss TeamPCP’s attacks and victims. This person has an extensive message history on Telegram, where their messages and shared videos show @pcpcasper is an active and vocal member of the National Socialist Network, a neo-Nazi political organization based in Australia. At one point in these chats, @pcpcasper shared videos and images of what they claimed was their cat, and several of those videos place this user in Western Australia. One source close to the investigation told KrebsOnSecurity that @pcpcasper was one of the two arrested, a claim supported by messages that @kernelstub posted online this morning. The Cybercats member roster pictured above also features an administrator with the username “**T**,” which is short for the now-banned Twitter/X profile **@pcpcats**, the account operated by the self-described TeamPCP spokesperson who was arrested today. As we’ll see in a moment, @pcpcats also is from Western Australia. By the time @kernelstub tweeted a public invite link to the Cybercats Matrix server, T/@pcpcats was posting only infrequently to the group chat, with other members often inquiring as to his whereabouts and well-being. The group’s collective concern related to @pcpcats’s tendency to blame his increasingly extended absences on the use of hallucinogens and other narcotics that kept him awake for days on end, but also caused him to crash in bed for several days after the highs wore off. The Cybercats member @pcpcats has used multiple nicknames on the cybercrime forums, including **EllisD25/LSD** on Darkforums, **BulkDMT** on Breachstars, and **Express** on Breachforums. These accounts are linked because they all advertised the same Tox ID and/or Session ID as instant message contact handles in their cybercrime forum posts. BulkDMT was also known on the forums as **DMT Host**, which was a [virtual private server](https://cloud.google.com/learn/what-is-a-virtual-private-server) (VPS) hosting service that was peddled on Darkforums and Breachstars. According to the cyber intelligence firm **Intel 471**, Express registered on Breachforums using the email address **shitstickpp@gmail.com**. Intel 471 finds Express posted on Breachforums across a two-month period in 2025 using four different Internet addresses located in **South Africa**. On July 30, 2025, Express announced on Breachforums they were selling access to 14 gigabytes of data stolen from South Africa’s State Information Technology Agency. The threat intelligence platform **Flashpoint** recorded more than a year’s worth of messages from the TeamPCP leader’s alter ego on Telegram — **Persy\_PCP** —  who claimed they split their life living between two countries \[full disclosure: Flashpoint is an advertiser on this blog\]. “I have these \[files\] as well, problem is these are in another country,” Persy\_PCP explained to another user inquiring about a stolen data set in November 2025. Later that month, Persy\_PCP complained, “My whole country is racist and they want people like me dead.” Flashpoint records show BulkDMT shared in September 2025 that “this country is going to fucking starve when they take the farmers land,” a likely reference to white landowners in South Africa who [claim to be targeted by an ongoing genocide campaign](https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/a-hillside-of-white-crosses-fuels-a-misleading-story-about-south-africas-farm-killings). This tracks with public reporting on TeamPCP. *Cyberscoop* [reported in June](https://cyberscoop.com/teampcp-breaks-open-source-software-trust-model/) that **Google** had traced TeamPCP’s residential and mobile Internet address connections to South Africa, “indicating the primary operator was located there during at least some of its attacks.” BulkDMT also shared on the group chat at Breachforums that they were recovering from an addiction to methamphetamine. “My life is kinda fucked rn \[right now\], but that’s fine and there isn’t really a point in pouring so much emotional energy into that fact, my parents had money but I unfortunately got really addicted to some things so I don’t get to benefit from that. As long as I continue to survive, stay sober, and move closer towards my goals that’s enough drive and meaning.” The identity threat protection company **SpyCloud** finds shitstickpp@gmail.com shows up in the registration of an account called **ChristmasSnow** on the cybercrime community **Raidforums** in 2022. Nearly all of the Internet addresses used to access that account came from ISPs in Perth, Australia, SpyCloud found. KrebsOnSecurity looked up all of those Perth IP addresses in [passive DNS](https://docs.domaintools.com/iris/investigate/data-panels/pdns/) records maintained by **DomainTools.com**, and found one of them — **211.27.196.111** — for several years was used as a private file server by a family in Perth with the last name of **Thomson**. Those records show at least three hosts — ithomson.direct.quickconnect.to (a remote Synology server), kthomson0061.direct.quickconnect.to, and **joshuawthomson39.myqnapcloud.com** (a QNAP network storage device) — persisted at that address between 2022 and 2025. Searching on “**joshuathomson39**” in the breach tracking service **Constella Intelligence** reveals an account at the freight forwarding company kwe.com created in the name of Joshua Thomson from Perth, Australia. The open source intelligence platform **Epieos** finds the phone number attached to that kwe.com account was used to register a Facebook profile for Josh Thomson, which says his family includes a brother named **Ruben**, his father **Ian**, and his mom Cindy. That Facebook profile also says Josh and his family are originally from [Pietermaritzburg](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pietermaritzburg), in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, but currently living in [Cottesloe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cottesloe,_Western_Australia), a beach-side suburb of Perth. A search in DomainTools for Ian Thomson and Australia unearthed five domains by the same registrant, including **securecomputing.au**, **thomson.org.au**, and **thomsonfamily.net.au**. Ian Thomson is a dentist in Cottesloe, and a biography says he graduated from The University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa. Constella finds a joshua@thomson.org.au registered a number of accounts online, but Josh doesn’t seem to have much of a connection to dodgy cybercrime forums. His brother Ruben, on the other hand, has quite the presence on these communities, dating back to at least 2018. Constella reports **ruben@thomson.org.au** frequently reused the password “joshuathomson1,” and Constella further finds that password was used by just a handful of accounts, including **yolosolo17@gmail.com** and **surfinup8@gmail.com**. According to Intel 471, surfinup8@gmail.com was used to register the user **Yolosolo17** on the crime forum **Altenen** in 2018, and that user account was registered from the Perth address **110.141.230.15**. On Altenen, Yolosolo17 advertised free web proxies, as well as the domain rubenthomson.com, which was at one point used to sell steeply discounted iPhones. **DomainTools** says rubenthomson.com was hosted at 110.141.230.15 and registered to surfinup8@gmail.com. SpyCloud reports 10.141.230.15 was used by the email address **sheepstealing@gmail.com** on Raidforums and surfinup8@gmail.com on Nulled, and that the same IP was used by the email addresses ian@thomsonfamily.net.au, jasper@yakuza.cc, and rubenthomson1@gmail.com. SpyCloud also shows that sheepstealing Gmail address is tied to the accounts **Sheep420**, **YoloSolo117** and **Yakuza.cc** on Raidforums, and to the account “Sheep Stealing” on Hackforums. Intel 471 says sheepstealing@gmail.com was used to register the account **DingoFlour** on Breachforums in October 2023, as well **Sheepx** on Altenen. Epieos reports that **ruben@securecomputing.au** is tied to an **Airbnb** account for Ruben, who described himself as a Web developer who went to school at the University of Western Australia and was living outside the country. “Hey, I’m Ruben, my friends call me **Ellis**. I’m a Perth creative who occasionally books rooms when visiting family and for photography.” Epieos also finds sheepstealing@gmail.com registered an upwork.com profile under the name Ruben, who said his main skills are setting up secure server hosting solutions and PHP full-stack Web development. “I’m familiar with Linux, working with relational databases (SQL),” the Upwork profile reads. “I also script in Python mainly for writing social media bots.” Epieos further discovered sheepstealing@gmail.com is connected to a Microsoft account for Ruben Thomson, and to a now-defunct GitHub account called [XmasSnow/XmasSnowisBack](https://web.archive.org/web/*/https://github.com/XmasSnow*) that scammed people on the forums in 2022 by claiming to sell exclusive exploits for recently-released software patches (recall that shitstickpp@gmail.com was used to register a forum account named ChristmasSnow). This same sheepstealing email address registered a Twitter/X account in 2026 called “Gone Fishing” that lists its location as South Africa. That Gmail account also [left several reviews](https://www.google.com/maps/contrib/116139896651889086279/reviews/@-32.2179865,115.5244308,99089m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m3!8m2!3m1!1e1?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI2MDUxMS4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D) for businesses listed on Google Maps over the past seven years, but all of those establishments are located on the west coast of Australia. The people search service **Pipl** finds a 21-year-old Ruben Thomson in Western Australia who has a phone number ending in 979. A lookup on that number at Epieos reveals it is connected to [a TikTok account](https://www.tiktok.com/@user7508029790800) under the name Ellis, and to a PayPal account in the name of Ruben Thomson. Finally, a search on the name Ruben Thomson from Cottesloe at the Australian government’s record of registered businesses finds he has incorporated or served as an official in multiple companies created since 2024, including **Secure Computing Solutions**, [Tensor Industries](https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/bySearchId.jspx?searchIdType=BUSN&searchId=698546137), and another entity ironically named [OPSEC Express](https://connectonline.asic.gov.au/RegistrySearch/faces/landing/bySearchId.jspx?searchIdType=BUSN&searchId=684301513). Recall that Express was BulkDMT’s nickname on Breachforums. It’s ironic because OPSEC is short for the term “operational security,” which refers to techniques and behaviors used to obfuscate and compartmentalize one’s real-life identity online, and using your cybercrime handle as part of your own company name is very much the antithesis of that practice. There is at least one other major opsec failure by Ruben that exposed a link to TeamPCP. In June 2025, someone using the name Ruben Thomson registered on **HackerOne**, a popular “bug bounty” program that seeks to reward and recognize researchers who agree to work with affected software vendors to help fix the flaws before publishing about their findings. What was Ruben Thomson’s chosen HackerOne username? **Deadcatx3**, a nickname that has been [flagged by multiple security firms](https://labs.cloudsecurityalliance.org/research/csa-research-note-teampcp-multi-ecosystem-supply-chain-20260/) as an alias used by TeamPCP. In early July 2026, not long after having discovered clues about Ellis’s real life identity, KrebsOnSecurity interviewed the TeamPCP leader via Signal, where he was remarkably open about his activities and personal struggles \[for the sake of simplicity, the TeamPCP spokesperson will be referred to from here on as Ellis\]. Ellis claims he stopped doing cybercrime for TeamPCP in March 2026 — just before the attacks that compromised LiteLLM — and that at least one other individual has taken over the group’s leadership since then. Ellis shared that a year earlier he had just completed the latest in a series of detox and sobriety programs, and was two months sober when he reconnected with some old friends from the malware development scene. “One year ago I needed help monetizing some \[GitHub credentials\], I was two months sober and needed a distraction and something to keep busy as well as people to speak to,” Ellis said. “I had largely disconnected from my old circle, they had become very toxic and I needed to get away from the substances. Previously I had done some mass exploitation campaigns and grew up doing \[malware development\] and \[capture the flag\] contests. There were some friends who were also vending but had stopped a while, and one of them introduced me to some chats where I posted access for sale.” Prior to that, Ellis said, he was homeless and hopping between “some very unstable places.” “Blackhatting is fun,” he said. “There are actual rewards and incentives to learn and you grow with your team. Without qualifications, no employer will even take the time to hear you out.” Ellis claims he’s earned a grand total of about $20,000 for his activities with TeamPCP, and that it was never about the money or fame for him. Asked whether his experiences with TeamPCP might prepare him for gainful employment in a legitimate IT job, Ellis said he doubted it. “I am nowhere close to a skill level where I am comfortable, and this would take maybe half a decade of further experience,” he said. “I no longer have to choose between rent and food for that I’m grateful and so are the team members.” Ellis expressed no remorse over his cybercrime activities, and said he was grateful for the friendships and relationships built throughout his engagement with TeamPCP. The young hacker also seemed resigned to his fate, and told KrebsOnSecurity that he’ll accept the consequences if he’s ever arrested. “If I’ve already been found out then its out of my control, I’ll make peace with that,” he said. “Honestly, I think someone like me needs a lot of help that prison just can’t provide. If I had the funds to study different parts of the field and closer guidance, this would have turned out differently. But that’s a pipe dream and we both know this.” It is clear from reading Ellis’s posts to the group’s Matrix server chats that his struggles with sobriety are ongoing. On Thursday, June 25, Ellis told @kernelstub he was about to “trip” with his “homie.” “What kind,” @kernelstub inquired. “Ketty and some DMT,” Ellis replied, referring to the dissociative anesthetic [ketamine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketamine) and [dimethyltryptamine](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dimethyltryptamine) (DMT), a powerful psychedelic compound that is found naturally in some plants but is also synthetically produced in underground lab environments. “There’s a little 2cb so we might throw that in the mix,” he continued, referring to [another psychedelic compound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2C-B) by its chemical shorthand. Roughly two weeks before his arrest, Ellis told KrebsOnSecurity he was ready to leave his life of crime behind and was prepared to turn himself in, but that in the meantime he was making plans to tie up loose ends. Less than 24 hours later, the TeamPCP leader posted an image on Telegram showing a yellowish powdered substance in a baggie and on a scale, possibly synthetic DMT. The image shows the powder being weighed next to a series of small vape cartridges, two of which are open on the table in front of the photographer. The two defendants were arrested Wednesday morning. The AFP said the men face a combined 14 cybercrime offenses and are scheduled to appear in Perth Magistrates Court today. **Charlie Eriksen** is a security researcher at **Aikido Security** who has closely followed TeamPCP’s cybercrime campaigns. Eriksen said TeamPCP are a good example of a new kind of threat actor that does not fit neatly into the usual categories. “They are not a state actor, not quite organized cybercrime, and not purely ideological,” he said. “Their motivations seem to mix money, disruption, attention, and ideology.” Eriksen said that historically there has always been a meaningful gap between reading about an attack technique and being able to reliably turn it into an operational campaign, but that large language models (LLMs) and artificial intelligence increasingly are helping threat actors to bypass that knowledge gap. “You had to understand the research, adapt the code, troubleshoot it, build infrastructure around it, and then repeat that process across different targets,” he said. “LLMs have compressed that gap significantly.” According to Eriksen, this creates an environment where threat actors suddenly have the ability to operate at significant scale without having developed the operational discipline that traditionally accompanies that level of capability. Put another way, it sets the stage for cybercriminals who are capable enough to cause significant damage, but not necessarily careful enough to understand or care about the consequences. “They can be noisy, they can make mistakes,” he said. “They can leave evidence everywhere. They can take risks that a professional criminal group or intelligence service would consider completely unacceptable. But that does not necessarily make them less dangerous. In some ways, it can make them more dangerous.” In a recent [blog post](https://www.aikido.dev/blog/shai-hulud-trusted-publishing), Eriksen called TeamPCP’s Shai-Hulud worm the “best thing to happen to supply chain security,” because it forced GitHub and other public coding platforms to erect new security safeguards. In direct response to TeamPCP’s broad success at pushing poisoned versions of popular software packages, GitHub in late July introduced a [three-day “cooldown” mechanism](https://github.blog/security/supply-chain-security/the-case-for-a-cooldown-why-dependabot-now-waits-before-issuing-version-updates/) for Dependabot, the platform’s tool for auto-fetching newly shipped updates for any package dependencies. Cooldown periods are designed to help buy time for security tools and package maintainers to identify and remove any compromised versions. Other coding ecosystems like Python and various JavaScript platforms [also added support](https://cooldowns.dev/) for cooldown periods this year amid growing calls from security experts about the need for more widespread adoption of the safety feature. Eriksen said TeamPCP’s legacy is that they achieved in the span of a few months what the supply chain security community has been unable to do for years. “They managed to wake up Microsoft to the fact that they had become negligent in terms of security,” Eriksen said. “By compromising GitHub and stealing their source code, they humiliated Microsoft into action, making them finally act on what we had been asking them to do and take seriously for a while now.” **Update, 10:08 a.m. ET:** A [story](https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-27/two-wa-men-charged-after-investigation-into-alleged-cybercrime/107084796) this morning from **ABC News** in Australia confirms Ruben Ian Thomson of Cottesloe was one of the two arrested. The 23-year-old suspect thought to be @pcpcasper, Michael Gaebler, also was arrested in Perth. ABC News reports that Thomson was denied bail (Mr. Gaebler’s attorney reportedly did not request bail for his client), and that both men will be held in custody until their next court appearance on September 18.