In a major cryptocurrency scam earlier this month, many high-profile Twitter profiles were hacked, and the hacker reaped more than $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day. The affected accounts included those of Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and more. Now, Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-year-old teen, has been arrested in connection with the accounts getting hacked. Twitter expressed gratitude to law enforcement agencies for taking swift action.
We appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement in this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses. For our part, we are focused on being transparent and providing updates regularly.
— Twitter Comms (@TwitterComms) July 31, 2020
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Clark faces a total of 30 felony accounts, which include one count of organized fraud exceeding $50,000, 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of aggravated identity theft, 10 counts of identity fraud, and one count for hacking and attaining illegal access to a computer or electronic device. Andrew Warren, Hillsborough's State Attorney, remarked:
“He’s a 17 year-old kid who apparently just graduated high school. But no make no mistake, this was not an ordinary 17-year-old. This was a highly sophisticated attack on a magnitude not seen before.”
Clark, who is expected to make his first court appearance tomorrow, gained access to Twitter's internal tools by compromising an employee, and then sold access to those accounts, Warren stated. He solicited money in the form of Bitcoin, promising the senders that he would return them twice as much.
Source: Tampa Bay Times
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