Joseph James O’Connor has pleaded guilty to enjoying a task in numerous cybercrime actions, together with the July 2020 hack that took over lots of of high-profile Twitter accounts. O’Connor, who’s recognized by the identify PlugwalkJoe on-line, was initially from Liverpool, however he was extradited from Spain to the US in April. If you happen to’ll recall, the perpetrators of the 2020 Twitter hack hijacked accounts owned by common personalities, together with Invoice Gates, Barack Obama and Elon Musk, and promoted crypto scams below their names. In 2021, Graham Ivan Clark, the supposed teenage mastermind behind the breach, pleaded guilty in return for a three-year jail sentence.
In accordance to the Justice Division, O’Connor communicated together with his co-conspirators in that Twitter breach concerning buying unauthorized entry to Twitter accounts. He allegedly bought entry to no less than one Twitter account himself for $10,000. As well as, he was additionally apparently concerned within the hack of a TikTok account with thousands and thousands of followers, in addition to a Snapchat account, by way of SIM swapping. In each instances, O’Connor and his co-conspirators stole delicate private info from the victims and then threatened to launch them to the general public. Whereas the DOJ did not establish victims in these instances, The Guardian says they had been named in press studies as TikTok star Addison Rae and actor Bella Thorne.
From March 2019 till Might 2019, O’Connor was additionally allegedly concerned within the infiltration of a Manhattan-based crypto firm to steal $794,000 value of cryptocurrency. They used SIM swapping to goal three of the corporate’s executives and efficiently pulled it off with considered one of them. Utilizing the compromised govt’s credentials, they had been in a position to achieve unauthorized entry to the corporate’s accounts and laptop methods. They then laundered the stolen cryptocurrency by transferring them a number of instances and utilizing crypto exchanges.
O’Connor has pleaded guilty to a prolonged listing of fees, together with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to commit cash laundering, each of which carry a most penalty of 20 years in jail. He’s now scheduled for sentencing on June twenty third.
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UK citizen pleads guilty to 2020 Twitter hack and other cybercrimes www.engadget.com 2023-05-10 10:36:19
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