{"id":305064,"date":"2021-07-21T19:45:59","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T16:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/suspect-in-2020-twitter-celebrity-hack-arrested-in-spain\/"},"modified":"2021-07-21T19:45:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T16:45:59","slug":"suspect-in-2020-twitter-celebrity-hack-arrested-in-spain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/suspect-in-2020-twitter-celebrity-hack-arrested-in-spain\/","title":{"rendered":"#Suspect in 2020 Twitter celebrity hack arrested in Spain"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Suspect in 2020 Twitter<\/a> celebrity hack arrested in Spain<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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\"Dozens
\n Dozens of Twitter accounts of politicians, business leaders and celebrities were hacked last year in what officials said was cryptocurrency scheme.
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A British national charged in last year’s hack of Twitter accounts of celebrities and politicians has been arrested in Spain, US officials said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department said Spanish National Police arrested 22-year-old Joseph O’Connor on a warrant issued by a US federal court stemming from the high-profile hack linked to a crytpocurrency scheme.<\/p>\n

O’Connor faces multiple charges in connection with the July 2020 hack of over 130 Twitter accounts, including those of App<\/a>le, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Elon Musk.<\/p>\n

The hackers hijacked the celebrity accounts and asked followers of them to send bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money.<\/p>\n

The Justice Department said O’Connor faces charges related to unauthorized computer access, extortion and cyberstalking.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year the Florida teenager accused of masterminding the attack was sentenced to three years in juvenile prison in a plea agreement.<\/p>\n

Graham Ivan Clark, 18, described as the mastermind of the July 2020 “Bit-Con” worldwide hack, was sentenced to the maximum allowed under Florida’s Youthful Offender Act. <\/p>\n

Clark was 17 when he was charged, and his case was transferred to a Florida state court because of his juvenile status.<\/p>\n

According to authorities, Clark used his access to Twitter’s internal systems to take over the accounts of several companies and celebrities and used a combination of “technical breaches and social engineering,” netting some $100,000.<\/p>\n

A tweet that appeared on Tesla founder Musk’s Twitter feed said: “Happy Wednesday! I am giving back Bitcoin to all of my followers. I am doubling all payments sent to the Bitcoin address below. You send 0.1 BTC, I send 0.2 BTC back!”<\/p>\n

It added that the offer was “only going on for 30 minutes.”<\/p>\n

Twitter said at the time that the July 15 incident stemmed from a “spear phishing” attack which deceived employees about the origin of the messages.<\/p>\n

The hack affected at least 130 accounts, including that of Biden while he was a candidate for president.\n <\/p>\n\n

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US teen ‘mastermind’ in epic Twitter hack sentenced to prison\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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\n \u00a9 2021 AFP<\/p>\n

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Citation<\/strong>:
\n Suspect in 2020 Twitter celebrity hack arrested in Spain (2021, July 21)
\n retrieved 21 July 2021
\n from https:\/\/techxplore.com\/news<\/a>\/2021-07-twitter-celebrity-hack-spain.html<\/p>\n

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