UK citizen pleads responsible to 2020 Twitter hack and different cybercrimes

Joseph James O’Connor has pleaded guilty to enjoying a job in varied cybercrime actions, together with the July 2020 hack that took over tons of of high-profile Twitter accounts. O’Connor, who’s identified by the identify PlugwalkJoe on-line, was initially from Liverpool, however he was extradited from Spain to the US in April. When you’ll recall, the perpetrators of the 2020 Twitter hack hijacked accounts owned by in style 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 line with the Justice Division, O’Connor communicated along with his co-conspirators in that Twitter breach concerning buying unauthorized entry to Twitter accounts. He allegedly bought entry to at the least 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 after which threatened to launch them to the general public. Whereas the DOJ did not establish victims in these instances, The Guardian says they have been named in press experiences as TikTok star Addison Rae and actor Bella Thorne.

From March 2019 till Could 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 focus on three of the corporate’s executives and efficiently pulled it off with one in every of them. Utilizing the compromised govt’s credentials, they have been capable of 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 responsible to a prolonged checklist of costs, 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.

All merchandise beneficial by Engadget are chosen by our editorial staff, impartial of our father or mother firm. A few of our tales embrace affiliate hyperlinks. When you purchase one thing by way of one in every of these hyperlinks, we might earn an affiliate fee. All costs are right on the time of publishing.

Trending Merchandise