In July 2020, Twitter was rocked by the hacking of accounts of personalities such as Elon Musk and Bill Gates, which led to a cryptocurrency scam. And this Wednesday the story has returned to the front page. This is due to the arrest in Spain of Joseph O'Connor, alias PlugWalkJoe , a 22-year-old British man who would be linked to the incident.
The news was confirmed through the United States Department of Justice. The North American authorities issued a statement in which they gave details of the situation. The arrest was carried out in Estepona , through the Spanish National Police.
According to available information, O'Connor faces “multiple charges” for his connection to the hack that affected more than 130 Twitter accounts, including those of politicians, personalities and companies. But that's not all, since it is also accused of participating in attacks against other online platforms .
“According to court documents, in addition to the Twitter hack of July 15, 2020, O'Connor is charged with computer intrusions related to the seizure of accounts of TikTok and Snapchat users. O'Connor is also charged with cyberbullying a victim Juvenile, “published the Department of Justice.
The Twitter hack of 2020 is news again
As we informed you in Hypertext a year ago, those responsible for hacking Twitter took advantage of the followers of the affected accounts to obtain cryptocurrencies illegally. Through the scam, the perpetrators collected around 120 thousand dollars in Bitcoin .
To carry out the cyberattack, the hackers allegedly tricked employees of the social network into revealing sensitive information over the phone. It is worth remembering that some of those involved had been arrested in the days after the event.
In the particular case of Joseph O'Connor, alias PlugWalkJoe, it would be a well-known “SIM swapper” or SIM card exchanger . This method would consist of manipulating employees of mobile telephone operators to clone telephone numbers and intercept text messages to use them in two-step verification processes.
In fact, a Krebs on Security report the day after the Twitter hack already named the young Briton and located him in Spain . Supposedly, O'Connor was studying at university there and would have been stranded by confinement due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to the United States Department of Justice, the multiple charges O'Connor faces are for conspiracy, extortion and cyberbullying . We will see what news the cause brings with this arrest.
