Three charged in high-profile Twitter hack
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The reading
Three people have been charged for their alleged involvement in the massive hacking attack on Twitter that took place on July the 15th. Hackers hacked into 130 high-profile accounts, including those of former US President Barack Obama, presidential candidate Joe Biden, rapper Kanye West, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The accounts of companies like Apple and Uber were also breached. The hack was part of a bitcoin scam. The perpetrators compromised Twitter's administrative tools to gain access to the accounts. They then altered the accounts to post legitimate-looking tweets that informed followers they could double any funds sent to a bitcoin account.
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The three suspects were arrested on Friday. One is a 19-year-old from the United Kingdom, the other two are American citizens aged 17 and 22. The 17-year-old is a resident of Florida. State investigators believe him to be the mastermind of the hack. A state attorney has filed 30 felony charges against him for "scamming people across America". The teen faces multiple charges, including 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information. A lawyer told CNN: "There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence." The hack resulted in 415 transfers being made into the suspects' bitcoin accounts, worth nearly $118,000.
Sources:
- https://edition.cnn.com/2020/07/31/tech/alleged-twitter-hacker-arrested/index.html
- https://www.wfla.com/news/hillsborough-county/tampa-teen-accused-of-being-mastermind-behind-twitter-hack-that-targeted-high-profile-accounts/
- https://www.engadget.com/teenager-arrested-twitter-bitcoin-hack-183302700.html
