A British man has pleaded guilty over his role in schemes to hack the Twitter accounts including Apple and Elon Musk, as well as stealing $794,000 in cryptocurrency.
Abené Clayton for The Guardian:
Joseph James O’Connor, 23, entered his guilty plea in a New York court after being extradited from Spain on 26 April.
He was arrested nearly two years ago in Spain for the July 2020 hack of over 130 Twitter accounts, including those of Apple, Uber, Kanye West, Bill Gates… and Elon Musk, who now owns the social media site.
He and others in his hacking group hijacked the accounts and asked the owners’ followers to send them bitcoin, promising to double their money.
O’Connor, who went by the online name of PlugwalkJoe, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of computer intrusion, extortion, stalking, wire fraud and money laundering.
The most serious of the charges brings up to 20 years in prison. O’Connor is scheduled to be sentenced on 23 June, according to a DOJ press release.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t hijack Twitter accounts.
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