Few developments better typify the unique insanity of the current political moment than the ascent of “Big Balls,” a 19-year-old software engineer who briefly worked at Elon Musk’s brain startup Neuralink, got recruited to the billionaire’s government-deconstructionist effort DOGE and, now, in a twist so ridiculous it seems like it was stolen straight out of South Park, has apparently been hired as a “senior advisor” to the U.S. State Department.
In reality, “Big Balls” is Edward Coristine, a high-achieving tech wunderkind, and the large-testicle-alluding-honorific is merely his online username. The Washington Post reports that Coristine, who is also a staffer at DOGE, was recently assigned to the State Department’s Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. It’s unclear what Coristine, who only recently graduated from high school, will be doing at America’s diplomatic hub, but it understandably seems to have rattled senior officials at the agency. The Post notes that, for some reason, a government directory also lists Coristine as working for USAID—the international aid agency that Musk has all but shut down in the span of a week.
Wired initially reported that Coristine had previously worked for Path Network, a cybersecurity firm that was known to hire reformed cybercriminals. Bloomberg subsequently reported that Coristine was actually fired from that firm after he leaked “internal information to the [company’s] competitors.” “I can confirm that Edward Coristine’s brief contract was terminated after the conclusion of an internal investigation into the leaking of proprietary company information that coincided with his tenure,” a Path Network spokesperson told the outlet last week. Coristine, meanwhile, has said that he did “nothing contractually wrong” while at the company.
Subsequently, cybersecurity blogger Brian Krebs made the claim that Coristine was also formerly a member of The Com, a loose online affiliation of Telegram and Discord users who have frequently been known to engage in a wide variety of criminal activity. Krebs doesn’t claim that Coristine was involved in any criminal activity, merely that he was a member of the group.
Now, for whatever reason Balls/Coristine has been given a horrifying amount of access to the data and internal systems of the federal government. In addition to Coristine, another DOGE member—23-year-old former SpaceX intern Luke Farritor—has also reportedly been given some position at the State Department. Like Coristine, he is also listed as working for the Bureau of Diplomatic Technology. Gizmodo reached out to the State Department for more information on what Big Balls and Farritor are doing for the government and will update this story if it responds.