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Vinny Troia

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Vinny Troia
OccupationResearcher
Years active2018-present
Organizations
  • Night Lion Security
  • Shadow Nexus
Known forCyber security
Websitevinnytroia.com

Vincenzo "Vinny" Troia is an American cybersecurity researcher and author specializing in open-source intelligence (OSINT), data breaches, and dark web investigations. He is the author of "Grey Area: A Dark Web OSINT Field Guide", and "Hunting Cyber Criminals". Troia has published research on cybercriminal groups including The Dark Overlord, ShinyHunters, and Scattered Spider.[1]

Career

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Music

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From 2002 to 2010, Vinny Troia started and ran Curvve Recordings, an electronic dance music record label. Curvve debuted with remixes of Ultra Nate's "Free", a previously #1 single on the Billboard dance club charts.[2] Troia's remix of "Free", alongside Oscar G and Trendroid, rose to #23 on the Billboard club chart.[2]

In 2003, Curvve released remixes of Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love", which rose to #13 on the US billboard dance charts,[3] followed by Vinny Troia's own single "Flow", with Jaidene Veda (2006), which reached #24 on the top Billboard Dance Songs chart.[4] In 2007, Curvve released "One Day My Love" by N'Dea Davenport, which rose to #10 on US Dance chart.[5]

Troia's second single, "Do For Love" featuring Jaidene Veda and with remix by Dave Aude, reached #40 on the US top billboard dance charts in 2010.[4]

Cybersecurity

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Troia serves as owner and CEO of Shadow Nexus, and Night Lion Security, cyber-security firms based in the US.[6]

In 2018, Troia found a data leak of nearly 340 million detailed records about individual people available on a publicly accessible server of Exactis.[7][8]

In 2019, he found a data breach in People Data Labs where records of personal data, including email addresses, employers, locations, job titles, names, phone numbers and social media profiles of 1.2 billion people were exposed.[9][10]

In July 2020, Data Viper, a threat intelligence platform operated by Vinny Troia, was reportedly compromised. The site claimed to host over 8,200 datasets linked to various data breaches, was described by Troia as a deliberate honeypot designed to track and identify individuals in connection with investigations referenced in Troia's book and published works.[11][12][6]

In August 2020, Troia wrote a report on the underground cybercrime economy built on the stealing of reselling of video game passwords.[13] The white paper outlines the process by which hackers make money by stealing and reselling Fortnite video game cosmetics, some making nearly a million dollars per year.[14]

In November 2021, hacker Pompompurin, admin of the Dark Web data sharing forum BreachForums, publicly harassed Troia by hacking into the FBI email servers and sending hundreds of thousands of emails to people accusing him of being a part of The Dark Overlord hacking group.[15][16] In addition, Troia claimed that they had previously performed a DDoS attack one of Troia's websites and also hacked the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's blog to create a fake blog post about him.[17][18][19][20]

Notable investigations

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Troia was referenced as an intermediary (Individual-1) in a U.S. arrest warrant for Alexander “Connor” Moucka (aka “Catist” and “Judische”) in connection with the discovery of the Snowflake and AT&T data breaches.[21][non-primary source needed] Media accounts also describe Troia's involvement under the alias “Reddington” [22] in discussions surrounding ransom demands linked to the breaches, including a payment by AT&T.[23][24]

Troia also conducted investigative research into the hacking groups The Dark Overlord and ShinyHunters. This work was detailed in his 2021 book Hunting Cyber Criminals, which examined the groups’ operations, methods, and impact. In addition to the book, Troia published a detailed investigative report analyzing the groups’ activities and affiliations.[25][26]

Publications

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In 2025, Troia authored Grey Area: A Dark Web OSINT Field Guide.[27] In 2021, Troia authored the book "Hunting Cyber Criminals: A Hacker’s Guide to Online Intelligence Gathering Tools and Techniques" (Wiley Books), which illustrates various investigative tools and techniques used to track down and investigate cybercriminals using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) gathering tools and techniques.[28]

References

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  1. ↑ "Bios Page | Saint Louis University Workforce Center". workforcecenter.slu.edu. Archived from the original on 2025-12-12. Retrieved 2025-09-02.
  2. 1 2 "Ultra Naté | Biography, Music & News". Billboard. Archived from the original on 2024-12-29. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
  3. ↑ "Official Singles Chart on 14/6/1987". Official Charts. 2023-01-28. Archived from the original on 2024-12-09. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
  4. 1 2 "Dance Club Songs". Billboard. 2013-01-02. Archived from the original on 2025-02-22. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
  5. ↑ "Dance Club Songs". Billboard. 2013-01-02. Archived from the original on 2025-12-12. Retrieved 2025-03-05.
  6. 1 2 Cimpanu, Catalin (12 July 2020). "Hacker breaches security firm in act of revenge". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 7 December 2024. Retrieved 6 December 2024.
  7. ↑ "Exactis said to have exposed 340 million records in massive leak". CNET. Archived from the original on 2023-08-10. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  8. ↑ "A New Data Leak Reportedly Exposed 230 Million Americans' Personal Information". fortune.com. Archived from the original on 2023-08-10. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  9. ↑ Reichert, Corinne. "1.2 billion records exposed in unsecured database". www.cnet.com. Archived from the original on 2023-08-10. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  10. ↑ Newman, Lily Hay. "1.2 Billion Records Found Exposed Online in a Single Server". Wired.com. Archived from the original on 2023-08-06. Retrieved 2023-08-08.
  11. ↑ "Breached Data Indexer 'Data Viper' Hacked – Krebs on Security". 2020-07-13. Archived from the original on 2024-07-25. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  12. ↑ "Breach database company DataViper allegedly hacked with billions of records offered for sale". SiliconANGLE. 2020-07-13. Archived from the original on 2024-07-25. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  13. ↑ Winder, Davey. "Fortnite Hackers Earn $1 Million A Year—Stealing Your Skins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2023-04-14. Retrieved 2023-08-26.
  14. ↑ Winder, Davey. "Fortnite Hackers Earn $1 Million A Year—Stealing Your Skins". Forbes. Archived from the original on 21 April 2023. Retrieved 21 April 2023.
  15. ↑ "Hackers compromise FBI email system, send thousands of messages". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2023-12-01. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  16. ↑ Lyngaas, Sean (2021-11-13). "Fake FBI emails about a sophisticated attack are part of 'ongoing situation,' agency says | CNN Politics". CNN. Archived from the original on 2024-12-25. Retrieved 2024-12-25.
  17. ↑ Vavra, Shannon (2021-11-17). "Wait—The FBI Got Hacked Over a Beef With a Guy Named Vinny?". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 2024-09-30. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  18. ↑ Roth, Emma (2021-11-14). "The FBI's email system was hacked to send out fake cybersecurity warnings". The Verge. Archived from the original on 2024-07-07. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  19. ↑ "FBI system hacked to email 'urgent' warning about fake cyberattacks". www.bleepingcomputer.com. Archived from the original on 2023-07-17. Retrieved 2023-07-17.
  20. ↑ "FBI Email Hoaxer ID'ed by the Guy He Allegedly Loves to Torment". threatpost.com. 2021-11-16. Archived from the original on 2024-06-24. Retrieved 2024-07-25.
  21. ↑ "Indictment – #1 in United States v. Moucka (W.D. Wash., 2:24-cr-00180) – CourtListener.com (http://courtlistener.com/)". CourtListener. Archived from the original on 2025-09-30. Retrieved 2025-08-30. {{cite web}}: External link in |title= (help)
  22. ↑ "The Walls are Closing in on the Snowflake Hacker". 404Media. 20 September 2024. Archived from the original on 2024-09-21. Retrieved 2 September 2025.
  23. ↑ Zetter, Kim. "AT&T Paid a Hacker $370,000 to Delete Stolen Phone Records". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2024-08-04. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
  24. ↑ Zetter, Kim. "Hackers Detail How They Allegedly Stole Ticketmaster Data From Snowflake". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Archived from the original on 2024-07-22. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
  25. ↑ "Hacker sends spam to 100,000 from FBI email address". NBC News. 2021-11-14. Archived from the original on 2025-07-22. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
  26. ↑ Troia, Vinny (2020-01-29). Hunting Cyber Criminals. Wiley. doi:10.1002/9781119541004. ISBN 978-1-119-54092-2. Archived from the original on 2024-03-24. Retrieved 2025-08-30.
  27. ↑ "Grey Area: Dark Web Data Collection and the Future of OSINT | Wiley". Wiley.com. Retrieved 2025-10-06.
  28. ↑ "Book Review of "Hunting Cyber Criminals: A Hacker's Guide to Online Intelligence Gathering Tools and Techniques"". www.rsaconference.com. 14 February 2021. Archived from the original on 10 August 2023. Retrieved 10 August 2023.
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