The United States Department of Justice announced that three young people, including 3-year-old Graham Clark, are under arrest and accused of being responsible for the massive hacking of Twitter accounts..
In a release Recently, the Department of Justice presented a report with the results so far of the investigations carried out by federal agents and other authorities to clarify the situation that occurred with Twitter, where more than 45 important accounts were manipulated to scam unsuspecting users and followers.
So far, 3 young men have been arrested on charges of intrusion, wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering, facing several years in prison and fines of up to $250.000 USD. Among those accused of the Twitter hack are 2 young adults, under the aliases of “Chaewon"And"Rolex”, and a third young man of only 17 years old who is under investigation, whose identity or alias was not revealed in the statement under the regulations for the protection of the identity of a minor, although it was soon discovered that his name is Graham Ivan Clark and will be tried as an adult before the authorities in Hillsborough, Florida.
The U.S. Department of Justice says the investigation is being conducted in conjunction with the U.S. Attorney's Office, the Justice Department's Criminal Division, the U.S. Secret Service, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), and several FBI special agents in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and Orlando.
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Anonymous hacks without consequences?
In response to this question, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of California, David Anderson, argues that:
“There is a false belief within the criminal hacking community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence… Criminal conduct on the Internet may appear stealthy to the people perpetrating it, but there is nothing stealthy about it. In particular, I want to say to would-be criminals: break the law and we will find you.”
Under these statements, Mason Sheppard, alias “Chaewon” aged 19 and residing in the city of Bognor Regis, England, is arrested on charges of computer intrusion, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and accessing an unauthorized computer, facing a possible sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $250.000 USD in the United States. While Nima Fazeli, aka “Rolex,” 22, of Orlando, Florida, is charged with computer intrusion and solicitation to commit electronic crimes, facing a possible sentence of five years in prison and a fine of $5 USD.
Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-year-old minor residing in Tampa, Florida, faces more than 30 felony charges, as authorities presume he was the one who committed the crime, convincing a Twitter employee that he worked at the company, specifically in the IT area, so that the employee would give him the credentials and have direct access to the accounts that were hacked.
Although the hackers only made off with funds worth around $130.000 USD during the Twitter attack, the fines for the crimes they face are almost double this amount for each of them.
Graham Ivan Clark to be charged as an adult in Florida
According to an affidavit filed by Clark, he claims he convinced a Twitter employee that they were co-workers, so that they would allow him access to the platform’s monitoring tools. At that time Clark accessed several prominent accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Elon Musk, Joe Biden, Paypal, Microsoft, Apple, Coinbase, Binance, CoinDesk, Bitcoin, Bitfinex, and many others, to post a scam that promised to return double the amount of bitcoin deposits received at an address, which was also promoted through multiple messages posted to these accounts.
As the main mastermind behind the Twitter hack, Graham Clark will be tried by state authorities in Florida as an adult, rather than facing a federal trial, as Florida law is more flexible in trying a minor as an adult for crimes and financial fraud, Hillsborough District Attorney said in a statement. Andrew Warren.
Bitcoin cannot be used to commit crimes and frauds
Research shows that the qualities and characteristics of Bitcoin, one of the most important and used cryptocurrencies worldwide, is not effective for committing illegal activities as many think. blockchainBitcoin's open, immutable and transparent nature allowed authorities to track the transactions that were made and the hackers' movements to withdraw the money. In addition, authorities point out that the accused used driver's licenses with their names as identification to withdraw the stolen funds on cryptocurrency exchanges.
Twitter's statement on the facts
Twitter posted a release recent in order to keep the community informed about the events that occurred on July 15, where the accounts of major tech and crypto companies, businessmen, political leaders and tycoons were hacked in order to trick their followers into sending money in cryptocurrencies, to a fake address. At the time of the attack, the hackers managed to obtain more than 12,8 BTC in more than 390 transactions from users who fell for the scam, and although Twitter has only indicated that it was a social engineering attack that allowed the hackers to reach its employees with access to the platform's management and control tools, the authorities allege that these young people committed a serious crime.
Statements from the authorities involved in the investigation
Acting Assistant Secretary for the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice, Brian C. Rabbitt, stated that:
"Hackers compromised more than 100 social media accounts and defrauded both the account users and others who sent money based on their fraudulent requests."
Furthermore, the United States Department of Justice states that:
“The hackers created a fake Bitcoin account, hacked the Twitter accounts, sent requests from the Twitter accounts with the false promise of doubling the Bitcoin deposits received, and then stole the Bitcoins that the victims deposited. As alleged in the complaints, the fake address provided received about 400 transfers worth more than $100,000 USD.”
Finally, an FBI special agent, he pointed The aim of the investigations was to identify the criminals and hold them accountable for the crimes committed, although he also stated that the investigations are still open and that they hope to arrest more suspects involved in the terrible scam.
Continue reading: The fragile security on Twitter and its response time
