Microsoft names Storm-2139 developers who abused Azure OpenAI Service

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit filed an amended complaint on February 27, 2025 that publicly named developers it says built tools to bypass the guardrails of its generative AI services, including the Azure OpenAI Service.

The filing identifies four individuals as central members of a global cybercrime network that Microsoft tracks as Storm-2139.

What happened

Microsoft named Arian Yadegarnia, known online as Fiz, of Iran; Alan Krysiak, known as Drago, of the United Kingdom; Ricky Yuen, known as cg-dot, of Hong Kong; and Phát Phùng Tấn, known as Asakuri, of Vietnam, as primary developers of the malicious tools.

Microsoft says members of Storm-2139 exploited exposed customer credentials scraped from public sources to unlawfully access accounts with certain generative AI services.

The company describes the network as organized into creators who built the illicit tools, providers who modified and resold access, and users who generated the violating content.

The original complaint was filed under seal in the Eastern District of Virginia against 10 unidentified John Does in December 2024.

Impact

Microsoft says the group altered the capabilities of its generative AI services and resold access to other malicious actors, providing instructions on generating harmful and illicit content including non-consensual intimate images of celebrities.

Microsoft identified two of the actors as located in the United States, in Illinois and Florida, but kept those identities undisclosed.

Response

A court issued a temporary restraining order and preliminary injunction that let Microsoft seize a website central to the operation.

Microsoft said it is preparing criminal referrals to United States and foreign law enforcement representatives.

Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit says it pursues Storm-2139 as part of its broader work disrupting the criminal misuse of generative AI technologies.

Lessons for security leaders

The case shows how exposed or scraped customer credentials can be turned into a path for bypassing provider-side AI safety guardrails at scale, not just for data theft.

Microsoft frames the legal action as a deterrent, noting that seizing infrastructure and unsealing filings produced visible disruption inside the group's own communication channels.