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Registered: 2023-01-04

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A Twitter hacker was sentenced to 5years in prison for a $120K crypto

A UK citizen who participated in the massive Twitter hack in July 2020 was given a five-year prison sentence in the US.

A little more than a month after pleading guilty to the illegal schemes, Joseph James O'Connor (aka PlugwalkJoe), 24, received the sentence on Friday in the Southern District of New York. July 2021 saw his detention in Spain.

The infamous Twitter hack gave the defendant and his accomplices access to Twitter's backend tools without authorization. They took advantage of this access to sabotage 130 well-known accounts and run a crypto-scam that brought them about $120,000 in illegal profits.

In other cases, the conspirators sold access to Twitter accounts to third parties, according to the US.
Apparently, the Department of Justice (DoJ). "O'Connor exchanged messages with others about buying unauthorized access to a variety of Twitter accounts, including accounts linked to well-known people all over the world.
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Additionally, the defendant is charged with planning SIM-swapping attacks to take over users' Snapchat and TikTok accounts. In one instance, the defendant allegedly targeted a cryptocurrency business in New York in order to steal cryptocurrency valued at $794,000 at the time.

The DoJ stated that "O'Connor and his co-conspirators laundered the Stolen Cryptocurrency through dozens of transfers and transactions and exchanged some of it for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services after fraudulently diverting and stealing it.".

In the end, some of the stolen cryptocurrency was deposited into an O'Connor-controlled exchange account. ".

O'Connor also admitted to cyberstalking two victims, one of whom was a minor, in June and July 2020 by pretending that the victim was threatening to shoot people in an effort to provoke a police response.

O'Connor will also have to undergo three years of supervised release following his jail sentence.
According to TechCrunch, O'Connor called his crimes "stupid and pointless.".
A $794,00 forfeiture order has also been issued against him.