U.K. Man Arrested For Hacking Into Kim Kardashian & Kanye West's Twitter Accounts In Bitcoin Mega-Scam
A man from the United Kingdom has been arrested in connection to the mega-hacking that compromised over 130 Twitter accounts, including Kim Kardashian and Kanye West's.
Joseph O’Connor, 22, was taken into custody in Estepona, Spain, by Spanish National Police pursuant on Wednesday.
According to a press release, he is being charged with a long list of crimes, including "three counts of conspiracy to intentionally access a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer; two counts of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer; one count of conspiracy to intentionally access a computer without authorization and, with the intent to extort from a person a thing of value, transmitting a communication containing a threat; one count of making extortive communications; one count of making threatening communications; and two counts of cyberstalking."
O'Connor is also being charged with "computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts," and "cyberstalking a juvenile victim."
Back in July 2020, more than 130 Twitter accounts belonging to celebrities, politicians, tech moguls, and companies were compromised in a Bitcoin-mega scandal.
Accounts belonging to Jeff Bezos, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Wiz Khalifa, Kimye, and more were hacked as part of a cryptocurrency scam.
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DAILY. BREAKING. CELEBRITY NEWS. ALL FREE.
Jeff Bezos' tweet read, "I have decided to give back to my community. All Bitcoin sent to my address below will be sent back doubled. I am only doing a maximum of $50,000,000.”
Twitter quickly caught wind of the scandal and began disabling the tweets, making sure to reveal the serious breach to followers.
"We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," the company wrote.
Even Twitter's CEO Jack Dorsey's account was compromised.
If O'Connor is convicted of the crimes, a federal district court judge will hand down his sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
