Jordanian national pleads guilty after unknowingly selling FBI agent access to 50 company networks

A 40-year-old Jordanian national pleaded guilty Thursday to operating as an access broker, selling access to at least 50 victim company networks he broke into by exploiting two commercial firewall products in 2023, according to the Justice Department. Feras Khalil Ahmad Albashiti, who lived in the Republic of Georgia at the time, sold an undercover FBI agent unauthorized access to the victim networks on a cybercrime forum under the moniker “r1z” in May 2023, authorities said in court records. The undercover FBI agent continued communicating with Albashiti for the next five months, uncovering evidence of additional alleged crimes.

He’s accused of selling malware that could turn off endpoint detection and response products from three different companies. Albashiti proved the malware worked w