Man Arrested in Connection with Alleged Role in Twitter Hack
justice.gov
justice.gov
Another story from the NYT: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/21/technology/twitter-tiktok...
The Twitter incident began when the hackers connected last year in an online forum focused on buying and selling rare user names, some of the individuals involved told The New York Times at that time. They then broke into Twitter’s systems by tricking employees into providing login information, according to legal filings. The hackers used an administrative tool to take over accounts belonging to political figures and celebrities, including former President Barack Obama, Kanye West and Elon Musk, using the accounts to conduct a Bitcoin scam, the filings said.
Graham Ivan Clark, an 18-year-old who prosecutors said was the “mastermind” of the Twitter hack, pleaded guilty to fraud charges in March in a Florida court and agreed to serve three years in juvenile prison. Two others, Mason Sheppard and Nima Fazeli, were arrested and accused of serving as middlemen for Mr. Clark to sell the Twitter accounts.
Mr. O’Connor was a well-known figure among hackers dealing in user names, going by the name “PlugWalkJoe.” According to chat logs that the hackers shared with The Times last July, Mr. O’Connor interacted with the group briefly, acquiring the Twitter handle @6.
At the time, Mr. O’Connor denied involvement in the Bitcoin scam. “I don’t care,” he said in an interview. “They can come arrest me. I would laugh at them. I haven’t done anything.”
According to an affidavit submitted by an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who investigated the breach, Twitter’s logs showed that a Twitter account belonging to Mr. O’Connor had viewed several accounts, as though shopping, during the hack.
Ms. Thorne’s Snapchat account was compromised in June 2019, according to the affidavit. The hacker threatened to release nude photos found on the account unless Ms. Thorne posted a tweet thanking him for returning her account, the affidavit said.
Instead, Ms. Thorne posted the images on Twitter. “I feel gross, I feel watched, I feel someone has taken something from me,” she wrote in a statement accompanying the photos. “I can sleep tonight better knowing that I took my power back. U can’t control my life u never will.”
After Krebs ran his story naming him, there was a press release saying what a good guy PlugWalkJoe was. I guess the arrest in major newspapers worldwide will override that SEO.
There's real criminals to prosecute. Why help some large company like twitter get rid of some annoyance?
Sparky was an old school dev responsible for writing software that was critical during the BBS era. A true computing pioneer.
By the police, apparently?
I hadn't noticed it before, it seems relatively new at least, if not unique to this release. Apart from being circular, is the first half even valid grammar? Or is it somehow important to note that multiple allegations are hierarchically combined into a single allegation?