Prosecutors have announced charges against three individuals for their roles in the Twitter hack that occurred on July 15, 2020.
The infamous hack affected several high-profile Twitter accounts including such as Biden, billionaires, and corporate accounts.
With all the hacked accounts, attackers posted a Bitcoin scam message to trick the users sending payments to a BTC address.
Three Individuals Charged
In the hack, Twitter admitted that attackers compromised the employee’s accounts to gain unauthorized access to internal tools.
Twitter said in a statement that “some of their employees were targeted in a spear-phishing attack through a phone.”
17-year-old Graham Clark accused of being the “mastermind” in the infamous high-profile accounts hack. He has been charged 30 felonies of communications against spamming with hundreds of accounts according to Florida news channel.
19-year-old Mason Sheppard, aka “Chaewon,” charged in a criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, commit money laundering, and access to a protected computer.
22-year-old Nima Fazeli, aka “Rolex,” charged with criminal complaint aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer, reads U.S. Department of Justice, press release.
In the hack, attackers managed to compromise more than 130 Twitter accounts, added tweets with 45 accounts, 36 accounts DM accessed, 8 accounts data downloaded.
The hackers created a scam bitcoin account to post in the hacked Twitter VIP accounts, and they made a false promise to double any bitcoin deposits made to the scam account. According to the complaints the accounts have received more than 400 transfers worth more than $100,000.
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here. This ‘Bit-Con’ was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida,” Warren said in a statement.
“Today’s announcement proves that cybercriminals can no longer hide behind perceived global anonymity,” said Thomas Edwards.
The Twitter hack in an eye-opening cybersecurity breach for the social media platforms as well as their users. The attack seems well-prepared and sophisticated.
Users and followers of social media platforms need to be aware of those scams and be vigilant while surfing on the Internet.
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