Hey, my friend!
How did your weekend go?
Joseph James O'Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe online, was recently sentenced to five years in prison by a federal court. Why, you ask? Well, he was involved in the Twitter hack that happened back in 2020. Crazy, right?
Anyway, this 24-year-old dude pleaded guilty to a bunch of cyber crimes, including carrying out a SIM-swapping attack. Apparently, he targeted a TikTok account with millions of followers. Can you believe that? The hack itself was quite a big deal because O'Connor and his co-perpetrators managed to get access to Twitter's backend system. And you won't believe whose accounts they hacked into - Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and more than 100 other high-profile users! Talk about aiming high.
But here's the kicker: O'Connor made a whopping $794,000 from a cryptocurrency scam that followed the hack. The Justice Department revealed that he and his partners laundered the stolen cryptocurrency through multiple transfers and transactions. They even exchanged some of it for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services. Ultimately, O'Connor ended up with a cryptocurrency exchange account under his control.
Interestingly, back in 2021, there was another guy named Graham Ivan Clark who was said to be the mastermind behind the breach. He was just a teenager! Clark ended up pleading guilty and received a three-year prison sentence.
Now, O'Connor not only got a five-year prison term but also faces three years of supervised release after serving his time. And get this, my friend: he has to forfeit the $794,000 he defrauded during the hack. Justice is being served!
It's pretty wild to think about the extent to which people can go to make a quick buck. Let's hope incidents like this serve as a reminder of the importance of cybersecurity and the consequences of engaging in such activities. Stay safe out there, buddy!
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