Security News > 2023 > May > Mastermind Behind Twitter 2020 Hack Pleads Guilty and Faces up to 70 Years in Prison

A U.K. national has pleaded guilty in connection with the July 2020 Twitter attack affecting numerous high-profile accounts and defrauding other users of the platform.

Joseph James O'Connor, who also went by the online alias PlugwalkJoe, admitted to "His role in cyberstalking and multiple schemes that involve computer hacking, including the July 2020 hack of Twitter," the U.S. Department of Justice said.

The 23-year-old individual was extradited from Spain on April 26 after a Spanish National Court, in February, approved the DoJ request to hand over O'Connor to face 14 criminal charges in the U.S. The massive hack, which took on July 15, 2020, involved O'Connor and his co-conspirators seizing control of 130 Twitter accounts, including those belonging to Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, to perpetrate a cryptocurrency scam that netted them $120,000 in a few hours.

O'Connor himself is said to have purchased unauthorized access to one Twitter account for $10,000.

O'Connor is one of four individuals who have been charged with carrying out the Twitter hack.

In addition to the Twitter incident, the defendant has been charged with computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts, as well as stalking a juvenile victim online.

News URL

https://thehackernews.com/2023/05/mastermind-behind-twitter-2020-hack.html