Hacker’s Crypto Heist Goes Spectacularly Wrong
A British hacker named Joseph O’Connor learned the hard way that crime does not pay, or at least, keeping the payment isn’t an option. The twenty-six-year-old has now been ordered by a court to hand over a staggering 4.1 million pounds in illegally obtained cryptocurrency. Among the more than 130 high-profile Twitter accounts that O’Connor hacked, Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple are notable. So, how exactly did a young man from the UK manage to hijack the digital voices of the world’s most powerful people?
A Digital Robin Hood (But Not Really)
For the scheme to work, O’Connor had to rely on clever manipulation than on sophisticated coding skills. The hacker and his associates simply tricked a handful of Twitter employees into surrendering their login credentials. Ultimately, they used this social engineering attack to gain access to the platform’s powerful internal admin tools.
Specifically, accounts were targeted and easily commandeered to promote a classic cryptocurrency scam. Moreover, these posts promised to double any money sent to their digital wallets. Among the estimated 350 million users who saw these fraudulent tweets, over four hundred people fell for the trick. As this audacious hack netted the group over twelve Bitcoin, the question remains: how did the hacker and his friends get caught?
A Hacker’s Hard Drive Gets Emptied
O’Connor was successfully extradited by authorities in the United States. On top of that, a judge sentenced him to five years in prison. Meanwhile, the UK’s Crown Prosecution Service led the effort to seize his assets, recovering forty-two Bitcoin and other holdings. Given that this total far exceeds the direct proceeds from the Twitter incident, investigators believed that he used additional hacking exploits to accumulate this wealth.
A Scam That Scammed the Scammer
The hacker reportedly met his accomplices on Call of Duty, becoming online friends in the process. Unsurprisingly, meeting people online can sometimes lead to serious real-world consequences. So, should gamers be wary of their squad mates? The court’s seizure order sends a clear message that law enforcement will pursue ill-gotten gains even across international borders.
Although O’Connor’s plan to double his money worked, his victims never recieved what they were promised. As a result of his actions, the hacker now faces a lengthy prison sentence and the complete loss of his criminal fortune. Hopefully, other would-be hackers see this story as a cautionary tale, and not merely as a challenge to overcome.
