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{"id":35774,"date":"2023-06-23T21:33:45","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T21:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/06\/23\/hacker-responsible-for-2020-twitter-breach-sentenced-to-prison\/"},"modified":"2023-06-23T21:33:47","modified_gmt":"2023-06-23T21:33:47","slug":"hacker-responsible-for-2020-twitter-breach-sentenced-to-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/06\/23\/hacker-responsible-for-2020-twitter-breach-sentenced-to-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/23\/twitter-hacker-sentenced-prison\/<\/a><\/br>
\nHacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison<\/br>
\n2023-06-23 21:33:45<\/br><\/p>\n

\n

Three years after<\/span> one of the most visible hacks in recent history played out in real-time in front of millions of Twitter users, one of the hackers responsible for the breach will now serve time in federal prison.<\/p>\n

Joseph James O\u2019Connor, 24, was sentenced Friday in a New York federal court to five years in prison after pleading guilty in May to four counts of computer hacking, wire fraud and cyberstalking. O\u2019Connor also agreed to forfeit at least $794,000 to the victims of his crimes.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor, a U.K. citizen, was extradited from Spain at the request of U.S. prosecutors earlier this year and has remained in custody since.<\/p>\n

In the hearing, Judge Jed S. Rakoff said O\u2019Connor will likely serve about half of his sentence after spending more than two years in pre-trial custody.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor faced a maximum of 77 years in prison, according to Reuters<\/a>. Justice Department prosecutors called for O\u2019Connor to serve at least seven years in prison.<\/p>\n

In court, O\u2019Connor said his crimes were \u201cstupid and pointless,\u201d apologized to his victims, and asked the judge for leniency.<\/p>\n

According to prosecutors, O\u2019Connor \u201cused his sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes \u2014 conducting a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting computer intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, including a minor victim.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government said O\u2019Connor, known by his online handle PlugWalkJoe, was part of a group that broke into dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts, including Apple, Binance, Bill Gates, Joe Biden and Elon Musk, to spread cryptocurrency get-rich-quick scams in July 2020.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor used phone-based social engineering techniques to trick Twitter employees into granting the group of hackers access to Twitter\u2019s network. One of the other hackers convicted<\/a> of the Twitter breach, Graham Ivan Clark, also known as Kirk, used the access to Twitter\u2019s network to abuse an internal admin tool<\/a> to hijack and reassign Twitter user accounts.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A screenshot of the Twitter admin panel that the hackers breached in order to reassign access to Twitter user accounts. Image Credits:<\/b> TechCrunch (supplied)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Twitter temporarily blocked users from posting to the site<\/a> as it grappled with the intrusion, as millions of users watched in real time as their timelines flooded with cryptocurrency scams from some of the most recognizable names on the planet.<\/p>\n

A subsequent investigation by New York\u2019s Department of Financial Services<\/a>, which accused Twitter of inadequate cybersecurity protections, found that the hackers broke in by \u201ccalling Twitter employees and claiming to be from Twitter\u2019s IT department,\u201d then hijacked the Twitter accounts of politicians, celebrities, and entrepreneurs to tweet \u201cdouble your bitcoin\u201d scams.<\/p>\n

The scam netted about $120,000, according to public blockchain records.<\/p>\n

\"Several<\/p>\n

Several of the tweets that were published during the 2020 Twitter hack. Image Credits:<\/strong> TechCrunch<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The breach prompted Twitter to improve its cybersecurity controls, introducing hardware security keys<\/a> for its employees to prevent future phishing attempts.<\/p>\n

Two years on from the hack, more explosive allegations about the breach came to light.<\/p>\n

Peiter \u201cMudge\u201d Zatko, who was hired as Twitter\u2019s head of security<\/a> months after the breach, later described the hackers\u2019 access as achieving \u201cgod mode,\u201d which allowed them to imposter-tweet from any account they wanted. Zatko called the incident \u201cthe largest hack of a social media platform in history\u201d in a whistleblower complaint<\/a> filed with federal regulators in 2022, in which Zatko accused his former employer of cybersecurity failings.<\/p>\n

Twitter auto-replied with a poop emoji in response to an emailed request for comment, as it has done since a short time after Elon Musk acquired the company.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/br><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n

Science, Tech, Technology<\/br>
\n<\/br>
\nSource:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/23\/twitter-hacker-sentenced-prison\/<\/a><\/br><\/br><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/23\/twitter-hacker-sentenced-prison\/ Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison 2023-06-23 21:33:45 Three years after one of the most visible hacks in recent history played out in real-time in front of millions of Twitter users, one of the hackers responsible for the breach will now serve time in federal prison. Joseph James O\u2019Connor, 24, was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,17,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-science","category-tech","category-technology"],"yoast_head":"\nHacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison - Science and Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2023\/06\/23\/hacker-responsible-for-2020-twitter-breach-sentenced-to-prison\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison - Science and Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Source:https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/2023\/06\/23\/twitter-hacker-sentenced-prison\/ Hacker responsible for 2020 Twitter breach sentenced to prison 2023-06-23 21:33:45 Three years after one of the most visible hacks in recent history played out in real-time in front of millions of Twitter users, one of the hackers responsible for the breach will now serve time in federal prison. 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