The man suspected of having participated in the hacking of the Twitter accounts of personalities such as Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk or Bill Gates was arrested in Spain on Wednesday.
He is a 22-year-old Briton.
Joseph O'Connor had been indicted by the American federal justice for his role in this spectacular attack which occurred in July 2020.
“In addition to the Twitter attack on July 15, 2020, O'Connor is indicted for computer intrusions related to the takeover of TikTok and Snapchat accounts”, as well as “online harassment of a minor victim” , the US Department of Justice said in a statement.
A $ 100,000 scam
Last summer, Twitter was the subject of a particularly troublesome attack, given the visibility of the hacked accounts. A message asking subscribers to send bitcoins to an internet address was displayed on the accounts of these celebrities. According to the investigation, the scam would have allowed the hackers to pocket a total of $ 100,000.
Twitter, whose image had been seriously damaged, explained that the cyberattack had targeted a handful of employees via a phishing operation by phone in order to obtain their credentials and access the hacked accounts.
Justice was quickly escalated to three young pirates: Graham Clark, an American then only 17 years old, Mason Sheppard, a 19 year old Briton, and Nima Fazeli, a 22 year old American.
After pleading guilty, the former, considered the mastermind of the attack, was sentenced in March to three years in prison.
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Twitter
Joe biden
Cyber attack
Cybercriminality
High-Tech
Piracy
Spain
Barack obama