British man charged in Twitter hack indicted for cryptocurrency scheme
British national Joseph O'Connor has been charged with stealing cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company.
British national Joseph O'Connor has been charged with stealing cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company.
File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo
Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors have announced a British man previously charged for a Twitter hack targeting high-profile users, including President Joe Biden, has been indicted on allegations of stealing $784,000 in cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based company.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of a four-count indictment charging Joseph James O'Conner, 22, with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud and money laundering as well as aggravated identity theft for the elaborate scheme.
In the charging documents, federal prosecutors described the hack as a SIM swap attack in which threat actors gain control over a victim's mobile phone number in order to obtain unauthorized access to the accounts registered to it.
The prosecutors allege that O'Connor, who went by the alias PlugwalkJoe, with others unnamed conducted the scheme from March to May 2019 to target the anonymous cryptocurrency company that provided digital wallet infrastructure and related software to worldwide cryptocurrency exchanges.
The indictment states they targeted at least three of the company's executives with SIM swap attacks to gain unauthorized access to multiple computer systems in the company in order to divert various forms of cryptocurrency including bitcoin and Ethereum from wallets the company managed for two clients.
O'Connor was arrested by Spanish authorities in July at the request of the United States for compromising more than 130 Twitter accounts last year.
That hack involved sending messages from the high-profile accounts to convince their followers to send them $1,000 in cryptocurrency. In return, the compromised accounts falsely promised to return double that amount if they did.
The scheme netted more than $100,000 in bitcoin from some 400 accounts in a day, prosecutors said.
Florida resident Graham Ivan Clark was sentenced to three years in prison and three years probation for his involvement.
Nov. 4 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors have announced a British man previously charged for a Twitter hack targeting high-profile users, including President Joe Biden, has been indicted on allegations of stealing $784,000 in cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based company.
On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced the unsealing of a four-count indictment charging Joseph James O'Conner, 22, with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud and money laundering as well as aggravated identity theft for the elaborate scheme.
In the charging documents, federal prosecutors described the hack as a SIM swap attack in which threat actors gain control over a victim's mobile phone number in order to obtain unauthorized access to the accounts registered to it.
The prosecutors allege that O'Connor, who went by the alias PlugwalkJoe, with others unnamed conducted the scheme from March to May 2019 to target the anonymous cryptocurrency company that provided digital wallet infrastructure and related software to worldwide cryptocurrency exchanges.
The indictment states they targeted at least three of the company's executives with SIM swap attacks to gain unauthorized access to multiple computer systems in the company in order to divert various forms of cryptocurrency including bitcoin and Ethereum from wallets the company managed for two clients.
O'Connor was arrested by Spanish authorities in July at the request of the United States for compromising more than 130 Twitter accounts last year.
That hack involved sending messages from the high-profile accounts to convince their followers to send them $1,000 in cryptocurrency. In return, the compromised accounts falsely promised to return double that amount if they did.
The scheme netted more than $100,000 in bitcoin from some 400 accounts in a day, prosecutors said.
Florida resident Graham Ivan Clark was sentenced to three years in prison and three years probation for his involvement.
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