San Francisco (AFP)

US justice indicted Friday three people, aged 17 to 22, for the spectacular hack in mid-July of Twitter accounts of celebrities, including Barack Obama and Elon Musk, which would have allowed hackers to collect more than $ 100,000 in crypto change.

A 17-year-old resident of Tampa, Florida was arrested early on Friday, according to a local justice statement. He is believed to be the mastermind of the cyber attack.

"This massive fraud was orchestrated right here, in our backyard," lamented Southeastern State Attorney Andrew Warren.

"There is a mistaken belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be carried out anonymously and without consequence," said US Attorney David Anderson, also an official in Tampa. "I mean to potential offenders: break the law and we'll find you."

The identity of the minor accused was first revealed, before the American justice decided to keep his name silent.

He was charged with conspiracy to commit electronic fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and intentional access to a secure computer.

Mason Sheppard, alias "Chaewon", 19, domiciled in the United Kingdom, has been charged with the same charges, said the US Department of Justice.

Nima Fazeli, alias "Rolex", 22, of Orlando, Florida, is suspected of aiding and abetting intentional access to a protected computer.

"This case shows how the strategy of following the financial trail, as well as international collaboration and collaboration between public and private organizations, can succeed in dismantling an apparently criminal operation," said Kelly Jackson, officer in charge of investigations. criminals at the IRS, the federal agency that collects taxes.

Twitter, whose reputation has been damaged by the attack on network stars, said Thursday that the attack had targeted a handful of employees via a phishing operation by phone, in order to obtain their credentials.

- "Pirates of the 1980s" -

The hackers "targeted 130 accounts - they tweeted from 45 of them, accessed mail from 36 and downloaded data from 7," the social network said.

Among the hacked accounts were those of politicians, such as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden or former US president Barack Obama, and big bosses like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Tesla boss Elon Musk. or Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft.

From the accounts they had taken control of, the hackers sent flirtatious messages urging subscribers to these accounts to send bitcoins, a cryptocurrency, supposedly in exchange for double the amount sent.

The sums paid landed on a fake account, created by the hackers, where they received "more than 400 transfers worth more than 100,000 dollars", specified the Ministry of Justice.

"These crimes were carried out using the names of known people, but they are not the main victims here," said Andrew Warren. This scam "was designed to steal money from Americans all over the country."

The cyberattack triggered a debate on the security of social networks a few months before the presidential election in November in the United States.

Twitter informed that thanks to the tools they had taken control of, hackers had succeeded in breaking through the barrier of two-factor authentication that normally secures an account beyond a simple password.

The Twitter network has been investigating and taking action to strengthen its protections.

The method employed, a coordinated telephone phishing attack, is reminiscent of "the hackers of the 1980s and 1990s," noted John Dickson of cybersecurity firm Denim Group. "They were very good at scamming people and getting them to give out their credentials."

© 2020 AFP