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UK national extradited to US pleads guilty to 2020 Twitter hack

10 May 2023 10:17am
Image for illustrative purposes only. - FILE PIX
Image for illustrative purposes only. - FILE PIX

WASHINGTON, US - A British citizen pleaded guilty to a 2020 hack of Twitter accounts belonging to high-profile figures such as then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, reported Sputnik, quoting the US Justice Department in a statement.

"A UK citizen pleaded guilty today in New York to his role in cyberstalking and multiple schemes that involve computer hacking, including the July 2020 hack of Twitter," the release said on Tuesday. "Joseph James O’Connor, aka PlugwalkJoe, 23, was extradited from Spain on April 26."

The 2020 Twitter hack compromised more than 100 high-profile accounts on the social media site. Some of the other hacked accounts belonged to Elon Musk, former President Barack Obama, and investor Warren Buffett, among other famous people.

The Justice Department also said O’Connor and his co-conspirators perpetrated a scheme to use subscriber identity module (SIM) swaps to conduct cyber intrusions to steal around US$794,000 worth of cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based company which provided wallet infrastructure and related software. - BERNAMA-SPUTNIK

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