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]
Troia serves as owner and CEO of Night Lion Security, a cyber-security firm based in the US.[2], and founded a threat intelligence firm Shadowbyte, which was sold in 2022.
In 2018, Troia found a data leak of nearly 340 million detailed records about individual people available on a publicly accessible server of Exactis.[3][4]
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.[5][6]
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.[7][8][9]
In August 2020, Troia wrote a report on the underground cybercrime economy built on the stealing of reselling of video game passwords.[10] 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.[11]
In 2025, Troia authored Grey Area: Grey Area: A Dark Web OSINT Field Guide, published by Wiley Books. The work discusses the use of hacked, breached, and leaked data within intelligence community with a focus on national security applications.
Grey Area references commentary from individuals with backgrounds in U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA, ODNI, DoD, and DIA. It includes an account of the 2024 Snowflake data breach investigations.[18]
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.[19] The book provides a detailed account of Troia's investigation into cyber criminal hacking group The Dark Overlord.[20]
Troia's book provides evidence and analysis to support claims that the masterminds behind The Dark Overlord cybercrime group are two teenagers living in Calgary, Canada. Evidence provided in the book, as well as a subsequent report published by Troia and Night Lion Security, attempts to link the members of The Dark Overlord hacking group to other "database focused" hacking groups such as ShinyHunters and GnosticPlayers.[21]
Notable Investigations
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[22]. Media accounts also describe Troia’s involvement under the alias “Reddington” [23] in discussions surrounding ransom demands linked to the breaches, including a payment by AT&T. [24][25]
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.[26][27]
Early Career (Music)
From 2002-2010, 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.[28] Troia's remix of "Free", alongside Oscar G and Trendroid, rose to #23 on the Billboard club chart.[29]
In 2003, Curvve released remixes of Jody Watley's "Looking for a New Love", which rose to #13 on the US billboard dance charts,[30] followed by Vinny Troia's own single "Flow", with Jaidene Veda (2006), which reached #24 on the top Billboard Dance Songs chart.[31] In 2007, Curvve released "One Day My Love" by N'Dea Davenport, which rose to #10 on US Dance chart.[32]
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