Joseph James O’Connor, a 24-year-old British citizen, was sentenced to five years in prison in the United States for his role in the July 2020 Twitter hack.
O’Connor, who went by the online alias “PlugwalkJoe,” pleaded guilty to criminal schemes that included unauthorized access to Twitter’s backend tools, SIM swapping attacks, and cyberstalking.
By infosecbulletin
/ Friday , November 22 2024
Over 2,000 Palo Alto Networks firewalls have been compromised in a widespread attack using two recently patched vulnerabilities (CVE-2024-0012 and...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Thursday , November 21 2024
Renowned cybersecurity researcher Jeremiah Fowler uncovered a non-password-protected database having over 1.1 million records linked to Conduitor Limited (Forces Penpals)....
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Wednesday , November 20 2024
Trend Micro released a security update for Deep Security 20 Agent Manual Scan Command Injection RCE Vulnerability (CVE-2024-51503) that resolves...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Wednesday , November 20 2024
Apple released critical updates for its various products including for iOS, iPadOS, macOS, visionOS, and Safari to fix two zero-day...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Tuesday , November 19 2024
Maxar Space Systems has verified a major data breach that exposed particular information of current and former workers. The breach...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Tuesday , November 19 2024
A security vulnerability (CVE-2024-52308) in the GitHub Command Line Interface (CLI) could allow remote code execution on users' devices. With...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Tuesday , November 19 2024
“Sarcoma” ransomware group attacked a well known Bangladeshi insurance company named "Popular life insurance company ltd". The threat actor keeps...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Monday , November 18 2024
Bug Hunt 2024, one of the largest cyber security competitions and conferences in Bangladesh, was successfully held at the ICT...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , November 16 2024
A serious security flaw has been found in some TP-Link routers, potentially enabling hackers to remotely access the affected devices.The...
Read More
By infosecbulletin
/ Saturday , November 16 2024
The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter that T-Mobile’s network was among the systems...
Read More
As part of the Twitter hack, O’Connor and his co-conspirators hijacked 130 popular accounts and used them to promote a cryptocurrency scam that netted them about $120,000. They also sold access to Twitter accounts to others and targeted a New York-based cryptocurrency company to steal crypto worth approximately $794,000.
ALSO READ:
CISA orders to patch iPhone bugs abused in spyware attacks
In addition to the prison sentence, O’Connor was ordered to forfeit $794,000 and will be subject to three years of supervised release after his release.
The sentencing is a reminder of the serious consequences of cybercrime. O’Connor’s crimes were not only financially motivated, but they also caused significant harm to the victims. The SIM swapping attacks, for example, allowed him to take control of victims’ phone numbers and access their personal information.
The case also highlights the importance of cybersecurity. Companies and individuals need to take steps to protect themselves from cyberattacks, such as using strong passwords and two-factor authentication.