Authorities have arrested a citizen from the United Kingdom who is allegedly connected to a massive Twitter hack in 2020 that compromised over 100 popular accounts.
Joseph O’Connor is the fourth person to be charged in connection with the hack, which cracked the Twitter accounts of President Joe Biden, former President Barack Obama, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, among others.
The US Justice Department says the 22-year-old was arrested in Estepona, Spain. In addition to the 2020 Twitter hack, O’Connor is charged with computer intrusions of TikTok and Snapchat accounts, and with cyberstalking a juvenile victim.
If he is convicted, a federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the US Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
The hackers also targeted various crypto accounts, including one belonging to Binance founder Changpeng Zhao, and sent tweets urging followers to donate Bitcoin (BTC) to a specific wallet address with the promise of doubling their contribution.
Nearly 13 BTC, worth approximately $110,000 at the time, were stolen from unsuspecting victims.
Today, the value of the stolen BTC has nearly quadrupled to $423,413.
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