The Twitter hacker was sentenced to 5 years in prison for stealing $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency

Twitter hacker named Joseph James O’Connor, known as PlugwalkJoe, was sentenced to 5 years in prison. This British citizen was extradited from Spain and has confessed to various cyber crimes such as computer hacking, money laundering and cyber espionage. His charges include two separate cases, one related to cryptocurrency theft and the other cyber infiltration for online extortion.

With the cooperation of his friends, he had organized a complex plan including SIM card swap attacks to steal cryptocurrency from a famous digital currency company in Manhattan. Through these attacks, they were able to control the victims’ mobile numbers and gain unauthorized access to their accounts. O’Connor and his colleagues managed to steal $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency, which has now increased in value to $1.6 million. These amounts were then laundered through multiple exchanges and some of it was converted into Bitcoin.

Of course, in addition to stealing cryptocurrency, O’Connor has also been involved in another case, which involves hacking Twitter accounts. He and his colleagues had used social engineering techniques to gain unauthorized access to account management tools. He has also been involved in unauthorized access to fake accounts of famous people in Tik Tok and Snapchat.

In any case, O’Connor’s conviction seems to indicate a serious determination to fight cybercrime, and his arrest is the result of cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice’s Bureau of International Affairs.

Source: Gizmichina