Australian Authorities Detain Two Suspected TeamPCP Members
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced the arrest of two men from Western Australia, aged 21 and 23, in connection with the cybercrime syndicate known as TeamPCP. The arrests were made today as part of an ongoing investigation into a sophisticated network accused of creating malicious open-source software to extort thousands of businesses globally. While the AFP did not disclose the suspects’ names, KrebsOnSecurity has identified the 21-year-old through prior communication and confirmed his identity via investigative sources.
TeamPCP’s Rise and Tactics in Software Supply Chain Attacks
TeamPCP emerged in late 2025 as a prolific threat actor specializing in software supply chain compromises. The group infiltrated open-source development environments by compromising credentials of maintainers on platforms like GitHub and NPM. Once inside, they injected malicious code into widely used tools, which then propagated to downstream developers’ systems. This allowed TeamPCP to steal further credentials and publish poisoned versions of development tools, creating a self-reinforcing cycle of infection.
Journalist Andy Greenberg described this method in Wired as a cyclical exploitation: attackers gain access to a network where a common open-source tool is built, plant malware that spreads to other developers’ machines, steal their credentials, and use those to compromise additional tools — thereby expanding their reach with each iteration.
The Shai-Hulud Worm and Incentivized Hacking Contest
A key component of TeamPCP’s arsenal is a self-propagating worm called Shai-Hulud. In May 2026, the group released the source code for its third iteration and launched a hacking contest offering 1,000 Monero (approximately $1,000 at the time) to participants who could execute the largest supply chain attack using the worm. Scoring was based on weekly and monthly download counts of compromised packages, directly incentivizing targeting of popular libraries.
Security firm Dataminr analyzed the contest and concluded it served as a recruitment mechanism. TeamPCP reportedly stated they would purchase all meaningful access gained by participants, framing the prize as a baseline reward with promises of far greater compensation for valuable findings.
High-Impact Attacks on AI Infrastructure and Code Repositories
In March 2026, TeamPCP compromised LiteLLM, an open-source AI gateway that connects users to over 100 large language models. Analysis by CloudSEK revealed the breach harvested cloud service keys and other secrets from more than 2,500 organizations, including many of the world’s top technology firms.
Two months later, in May 2026, TeamPCP claimed responsibility for compromising at least 3,800 code repositories on GitHub, which is owned by Microsoft. The attack began when a developer installed a seemingly legitimate code extension that had been backdoored with TeamPCP’s malware, enabling unauthorized access and data exfiltration across numerous projects.
Understanding TeamPCP: A Loose Affiliation of Cybercriminal Actors
Security experts characterize TeamPCP not as a rigid hierarchy but as a fluid network of skilled individuals from various cybercriminal groups who collaborate opportunistically. Austin Larsen, a principal threat analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, described it as a peer community with a clear center of gravity but no single commander.
That center is widely believed to be George Prepakis, a security researcher and exploit developer known online as @kernelstub. He created a Matrix chat server called ‘Cybercats,’ which has become a hub for communication among TeamPCP and affiliated groups such as Fulcrumsec and others involved in data extortion and breach brokering.
The Cybercats Network and Associated Threat Actors
The Cybercats Matrix server includes administrators using aliases linked to known cybercriminal handles. ‘Boxturtle,’ associated with the Breachforums actor @xpl0itrsturtle, has been involved in selling data stolen from major automakers including BMW, Audi, Honda, Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, and Toyota, as well as data from Snapchat and SportRadar.
‘SeesawSec’ corresponds to Fulcrumsec, a group that has claimed responsibility for data extortion attacks against Novo Nordisk, LexisNexis, and Avnet, a Fortune 500 electronic components distributor.
Another administrator, @pcpcasper, has used similar handles on X (formerly Twitter) and has an extensive history on Telegram revealing affiliation with the National Socialist Network, a neo-Nazi organization based in Australia. Investigative sources told KrebsOnSecurity that @pcpcasper is one of the two individuals arrested in Western Australia.
The self-described TeamPCP spokesperson, known online as @pcpcats (also using aliases EllisD25/LSD, BulkDMT, and Express across cybercrime forums), is also from Western Australia and was the second person detained. His activity in the Cybercats chat had diminished prior to arrest, with fellow members expressing concern about his unexplained absences, which he attributed to hallucinogen use and subsequent crashes.
Background on the Suspected Leader: George Prepakis and Digital Footprints
Investigative reporting has tied the online persona ‘Express’ — used by the suspected TeamPCP leader — to the email address shitstickpp@gmail.com. Intelligence firm Intel 471 found this account registered on Breachforums in 2025 and linked to four different IP addresses in South Africa over a two-month period. On July 30, 2025, the user announced the sale of 14 gigabytes of data stolen from South Africa’s State Information Technology Agency.
Flashpoint monitored over a year of Telegram activity from the alias Persy_PCP, believed to be an alter ego of the leader, who described splitting time between countries and referenced stolen data sets. BulkDMT, another alias, discussed recovering from methamphetamine addiction in forum posts.
SpyCloud traced shitstickpp@gmail.com to an account called ChristmasSnow on Raidforums from 2022, with nearly all access originating from ISPs in Perth, Australia. Passive DNS records from DomainTools showed one Perth IP address — 211.27.196.111 — had been used for years as a private file server by a Thomson family. Further investigation linked this to Joshua Thomson, whose Facebook profile indicated origins in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, before relocating to Cottesloe, a suburb of Perth.
These digital traces suggest a transnational operational pattern, with leadership connections spanning South Africa and Australia, complicating attribution but reinforcing the group’s reach.
Source: Krebs on Security