A 24-year-old British man will face five years in prison for his part in the major hacking attack on Twitter in 2020. He then managed to take over the Twitter accounts of several prominent artists and business people and convince their followers to buy Bitcoin. to make. He was also found guilty of taking over several TikTok and Snapchat accounts and cyberstalking a minor.
The US Department of Justice writes this in a press release.
The suspect stole more than 100,000 euros in a Twitter hack
It concerns Joseph James O’Connor from the United Kingdom, who was also known online as PlugWalkJoe. He was arrested in Spain two years ago and extradited to the US last April. Almost immediately, he confessed that he had played a major role in the cyber attack on Twitter in 2020.
Hackers then managed to penetrate Twitter’s internal systems through social engineering. They gained control of accounts of Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Ye West, Kim Kardashian, Apple and Uber, among others. In this capacity, they asked their followers to deposit bitcoins in order to “give something back to society.” In total, they hijacked 130 Twitter accounts.
In a short time, the perpetrators earned about 100,000 euros. That money was immediately channelled away. In addition to O’Connor, three more men have been arrested for this scam.
Brit also convicted of SIM-swapping, cyberstalking and swatting
The judge ruled that the suspect had also been guilty of SIM swapping. By taking control of his victims’ phone numbers, he was able to take over their TikTok and Snapchat accounts. He then decided to post several messages with the aim of promoting himself.
Finally, O’Connor has been found guilty of cyberstalking and swatting. In the latter case, the emergency services receive a false report requesting to intervene quickly to prevent a serious crime. The police went to the house of a minor several times, but also a secondary school, a restaurant and a police station in the region.
The suspect is sentenced to five years in prison.
The 24-year-old suspect was sentenced to five years in prison for these offences. Since he has been in pretrial detention since 2021, he has already served part of his sentence.
In addition to the fact that he must go to jail, the judge also ordered the man to hand over a sum of $ 794,000. He stole that amount from a crypto company that operated from Manhattan.
All in all, the man comes off well: the prison sentences for computer trespass, extortion, threats, cyberstalking and money laundering add up to decades in prison.