A successful US prosecution has seen the hacker responsible a 2021 Twitter account takeover, Joseph James O’Connor, sentenced to five years in jail and ordered to pay $794,000 for stealing Bitcoin.
A US court sentenced Joseph James O’Connor to five years in prison after he pleaded guilty last month to extorting $794,000 through fake Twitter giveaways.
O’Connor Sentenced For “Malicious” Crimes
US prosecutors charged and extradited O’Connor, 24, and British co-conspirator Mason Sheppard in April. Americans Graham Ivan Clark and Nima Fazeli were also charged. Police initially suspected the hack was the work of an individual.
Clark, who prosecutors identified as the plot mastermind, was sentenced to three years in juvenile prison in July 2021.
The schemes offered bogus giveaways from the Twitter accounts of billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and President Joe Biden in exchange for Bitcoin deposits.
Celebrities Kanye West Kim Kardashian-West, and billionaire Michael Bloomberg were also affected. Later, O’Connor and partners stole $794,000 from a cryptocurrency company.
In addition to the hack, O’Connor also stalked a 16-year-old girl online. He endangered another minor by raising a false alarm they were holding people hostage and later threatened the victim’s family.
Despite initially claiming innocence, O’Connor pleaded guilty to several charges in May 2023. According to US prosecutors,
“O’Connor’s criminal activities were… malicious, and his conduct impacted multiple people’s lives.’”
Cryptocurrency crimes like the O’Connor’s hack capitalize on prominent people and celebrities to gain public attention.
Billionaire Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s links with meme coins Shiba Inu and Dogecoin likely reduced the perceived risk.
Kim Kardashian-West’s earlier promotion of EthereumMax probably fooled the TV personalities’ fan base into sending Bitcoin to an address O’Connor supplied.
Twitter’s Cybersecurity Allowed Cryptocurrency Crime
Recent Twitter hacks have painted the company’s security poorly.
How Data Breaches Occur | Source: The Cybersecurity Hub
O’Connor’s involvement started after he bought a Twitter handle a pseudonymous Discord user Kirk sold to prove his access to company internals.
In January this year, records of 235 million Twitter account holders appeared on an internet forum. The hacker claimed to have exploited a patch Twitter said it fixed in August 2022.
Learn here about the top 15 cryptocurrency scams to watch out for.
Earlier that year, the company fired two officials, one of which filed a whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging Twitter was guilty of serious data privacy violations.
Former Twitter CEO Musk fired several security employees to cut costs during a tumultuous first and second quarter.
It is unclear whether the firm’s new CEO, Linda Yaccarino, can replenish depleted talent pool to restore confidence in the company’s advertising business.
Musk’s reversal of the company’s work-from-home policies and extended parental leave also present an additional hurdle job-seekers must consider.
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