Spanish National Police arrested a 22 year-old British man in connection with the July 2020 hack of more than 130 prominent Twitter users, including former President Barack Obama and then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Joseph O’Connor was arrested Wednesday in the resort town of Estepona, the Justice Department announced in a press release. In addition to the July 2020 Twitter hack, he is also charged with hacking TikTok and Snapchat accounts, and cyber-stalking a minor. In all, O’Connor is facing ten felony charges.
Man Arrested in Connection with Alleged Role in Twitter Hackhttps://t.co/7mJaCqGlUi
— Justice Department (@TheJusticeDept) July 21, 2021
The July 2020 Twitter hack is known as the Bit-con, since hackers sent out tweets from the affected accounts urging other users to send Bitcoin to a wallet, with the promise that it would be doubled. Other hacked users included Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Warren Buffet, NBC News reported. Twitter ultimately locked all verified user accounts to prevent the hackers from taking over more handles. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Don Jr. And His Spokesman Are Still Locked Out Of Their Accounts 12 Hours After Bitcoin Hack, And Twitter Won’t Say Why)
Twitter later announced that some of its employees were fooled by a phone spear-phishing attack, in which the hackers convinced the employees to reveal their log-in credentials.
By obtaining employee credentials, they were able to target specific employees who had access to our account support tools. They then targeted 130 Twitter accounts – Tweeting from 45, accessing the DM inbox of 36, and downloading the Twitter Data of 7.
— Twitter Support (@TwitterSupport) July 31, 2020
Graham Ivan Clark, a 17 year-old from Florida, was arrested on July 31 in connection with the hacking. He was charged with 30 felonies. Clark was sentenced to three years in prison and three years of probation after pleading guilty to the hacking in March.