Security News > 2023 > May > 23-year-old Brit linked to 2020 Twitter attack and SIM-swap scheme pleads guilty

A 23-year-old British citizen has confessed to "Multiple schemes" involving computer crimes, including playing a part in the July 2020 Twitter attack that saw the accounts of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, and former President Barack Obama hijacked by an unidentified crew.

The 2020 Twitter attack happened when blue ticks still meant "Verified account" and was accomplished using social engineering just as the COVID-19 pandemic was starting to gain traction.

"Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time," read a message posted to Bill Gates's Twitter account at the time - although it is not known if O'Connor was connected to this specific message.

According to the court documents, O'Connor and his co-conspirators used social engineering techniques to transfer control of highly desirable Twitter accounts from their rightful owners to "Various unauthorized users." Feds explained that sometimes the co-conspirators took control themselves and used the accounts to defraud other Twitter users and in "Other instances, the co-conspirators sold access to Twitter accounts to others."

Two criminal cases against O'Connor, one in the Northern District of California and the other in the Southern District of New York, were consolidated and transferred to NY. In the New York case, prosecutors alleged that in a May 1, 2019, attack, O'Connor and his co-conspirators stole and fraudulently diverted cryptocurrency from wallets maintained by an org they name only as "Company-1." The attack on a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company used a SIM-swap technique where miscreants get control of the victim's mobile phone number by linking it to a SIM under their own control, typically by fooling the mobile provider.

"O'Connor used his sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes - conducting a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting computer intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, including a minor victim," said US attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2023/05/10/guilty_plea_twitter_o_connor_case/