Crypto thief PlugwalkJoe has been sentenced to 5 years in prison.
British hacker Joseph O’Connor has been sentenced to five years in prison in the US for trying to steal $794,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from a crypto exchange executive with a SIM swap attack.
British Hacker PlugwalkJoe Sentenced to 5 Years in US Jail
British hacker Joseph O’Connor has been sentenced to five years in prison in the US for trying to steal $794,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from a crypto exchange executive with a SIM swap attack. O’Connor was arrested in Spain in July 2021 and extradited to the United States on April 26, 2023. In addition to his prison sentence, he was sentenced to three years of probation and an amount of $794,012.64 was also ordered to be confiscated.
The name of the hacked crypto manager was not disclosed, but after O’Connor performed the SIM swap, he gained unauthorized access to the accounts and computing systems of the exchange where the manager was working. O’Connor and his collaborators carried out a series of transfers and transactions to launder the stolen cryptocurrency. They also used cryptocurrency exchange services to convert some of it to Bitcoin.
O’Connor’s punishment also covers the massive Twitter hack of July 2020. Using social engineering techniques and SIM swapping attacks, O’Connor and his team tried to take advantage of TikTok, Snapchat, and about 130 prominent Twitter accounts. Additionally, O’Connor tried to blackmail the Snapchat victim, threatening to post private messages publicly, and in other cases, sold access to their Twitter account to others.
With all these charges, O’Connor was sentenced to 5 years in prison after his arrest in the USA.
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