2 years ago
A U.K. national has been sentenced by а New York tribunal to 5 years successful situation for his relation successful a Twitter hack including the hijacking of accounts of U.S. governmental and concern figures. The antheral is besides liable for the theft of ample amounts of cryptocurrency successful a SIM swap attack.
Hacker Goes to Jail for Breaching Twitter Accounts of U.S. Officials and Business Leaders
A British nationalist got a five-year situation condemnation for his engagement successful a Twitter hack that targeted the accounts of starring U.S. politicians and businessmen. The hijacking is 1 of respective crimes that helium was charged with, including stealing cryptocurrency and cyberstalking victims.
The sentencing comes aft Joseph James O’Connor pleaded blameworthy successful New York successful May to participating successful a fig of online schemes including a Twitter hack that led to the impersonation of erstwhile U.S. President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, Amazon laminitis Jeff Bezos, and billionaire capitalist Warren Buffett, among others, to advertise a Bitcoin scheme, Bloomberg reported.
The blameworthy plea followed the extradition of the 24-year-old Brit from Spain successful precocious April. During the sentencing proceeding successful Manhattan connected Friday, O’Connor, who was known online arsenic “PlugwalkJoe,” stated helium was ashamed of his deeds.
“I’m atrocious to each the victims of my crimes. I’m present due to the fact that I did anserine and shameful things,” helium told U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff. “I volition ne'er interruption the instrumentality again,” O’Connor promised and insisted successful the courtroom:
I privation to unrecorded a beingness with meaning, not the idiotic, empty, hermit beingness I was living.
Rakoff said helium considered O’Connor’s comparatively young property and autism successful reaching the five-year condemnation portion prosecutors had sought 7 years. The justice besides noted O’Connor volition beryllium credited with the 23 months helium already served earlier the sentencing.
The accused besides pleaded blameworthy to stealing implicit $794,000 from a Manhattan-based crypto institution by SIM-swapping immoderate of its executives and agreed to forfeit that amount.
“O’Connor utilized his blase technological abilities for malicious purposes — conducting a analyzable SIM swap onslaught to bargain ample amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting machine intrusions to instrumentality implicit societal media accounts, and adjacent cyberstalking 2 victims,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams was quoted arsenic saying astatine the clip of the blameworthy plea.
O’Connor besides admitted to “swatting” a 16-year-old miss successful the summertime of 2020 erstwhile helium was calling the constabulary and claiming she was readying to sprout radical and aboriginal threatening members of her family. The study elaborate helium sent akin messages to a precocious school, restaurant, and sheriff’s department.
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