Twitter Hacker Goes To Jail
A British man who hacked famous Twitter accounts as part of a Bitcoin scam has been jailed in the US he has been involved in hacking schemes targeting crypto-currency wallets, Twitter accounts, and other social media accounts.
Joseph O'Connor, from Liverpool, took control more than 130 Twitter accounts in July 2020. The victims included Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Mike Bloomberg, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.
The 24-year-old hacker pleaded guilty to the charges of conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and money laundering, computer intrusion, extortion, stalking, and making threats in May. He pleaded guilty to various charges, including SIM swapping attacks resulting in the theft of $794,000 worth of crypto-currency and participating in a scheme targeting high-profile Twitter accounts.
As part of the attack, the perpetrator took over the phone numbers of three executives at the victim company to gain access to accounts and computers and steal crypto-currency from wallets maintained on behalf of two clients.
O’Connor also used SIM swapping to access unauthorised accounts on TikTok and Snapchat and engaged in stalking and swatting activities. He has now been sentenced to a five years prison sentence for cyber crimes, and ordered to pay forfeiture of $794,000, according to the US Attorney's Office in the southern district of New York.
This hacking attack was part of a major Bitcoin scam that generated tweets asking followers to send Bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money.
As a result of the fraud, an estimated 350 million Twitter users viewed suspicious tweets from official accounts of some of the platform's biggest users, including Apple, Uber, Kanye West and Bill Gates. Thousands were duped into believing that a crypto giveaway was real.
O'Connor, who named himself PlugwalkJoe, was arrested 2 years ago and has been extradited from Spain to the US in April 2023 and in May he pleaded guilty to hacking charges that carried a total maximum sentence of more than 70 years. Three other men have been charged over the scam, with US teenager Graham Clark pleading guilty to his part in the deception in 2021.
The hackers telephoned a small number of Twitter employees with a believable tale to convince them to hand over their internal login details, which eventually granted them access to Twitter's administrative tools. They managed to use social engineering tricks, more akin to conmen than high-level cyber-criminals, with the aim to get access to the powerful internal control panel at the site.
In a statement, US Assistant Attorney-General Kenneth Polite Jr described O'Connor's actions as "flagrant and malicious", saying he had "harassed, threatened and extorted his victims, causing substantial emotional harm".
The US justice department also said O'Connor admitted other hacking crimes including gaining access to a high-profile TikTok account and stalking a minor.
The attacks, which unfolded over the course of several hours in July 2020, rocked Twitter and prompted the company to take the unprecedented measure of stopping all verified accounts from tweeting. He has been ordered to pay almost $800,000 in forfeiture, the US justice department said.
US Dept. of Justice: BBC: Oodaloop: Security Week: Daily Mail: Liverpool World: Guardian:
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