Summary
A British hacker named Joseph O'Connor was sentenced to repay £4.1 million after hacking over 130 high-profile Twitter accounts in 2020. O'Connor was involved in a scam that used these accounts to solicit Bitcoin, promising to double the money people sent. He was arrested in Spain and later extradited to the U.S., where he was sentenced to five years in prison for cyber crimes.
Key Facts
- Joseph O'Connor hacked Twitter accounts of well-known people like Barack Obama and Elon Musk in July 2020.
- The scam involved tweets from these accounts asking people to send Bitcoin, claiming they would receive double in return.
- O'Connor was arrested in Spain in 2021 and extradited to the U.S. for trial.
- He and other hackers gained access to Twitter's systems through social engineering, tricking employees to share login details.
- O'Connor was sentenced to five years in prison and now must repay £4.1 million in Bitcoin.
- The hack affected an estimated 350 million Twitter users who saw suspicious tweets.
- A total of over 12.86 Bitcoin was stolen, which is now worth about $1.2 million.
- The UK authorities recovered 42 Bitcoin and other digital currencies from O'Connor.
