In one of the largest thefts in social media history, a 23-year-old British man pled guilty to hacking into more than 100 Twitter accounts, including those of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Kim Kardashian, and Elon Musk.
On Tuesday, May 9, Joseph James O’Connor, better known as PlugwalkJoe, pled guilty in New York to his role in the July 2020 attack, as well as cyberstalking and other crimes.
On April 26, O’Connor was extradited from Spain to face accusations that carry a combined maximum sentence of more than 70 years in jail.
O’Connor was charged alongside Mason Sheppard of Bognor Regis, West Sussex, and two Americans, Graham Ivan Clark and Nima Fazeli, according to the US Department of Justice.
Sheppard, also identified as Chaewon by US police, was 19 years old when the offenses occurred in July 2020. He was charged with wire fraud conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and unauthorized access to a secured computer.
On Tuesday, assistant attorney general Kenneth A Polite Jr of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division described O’Connor’s criminal activities as ‘flagrant and malicious’ and said his conduct ‘impacted multiple people’s lives’.
The attorney added: ‘He harassed, threatened, and extorted his victims, causing substantial emotional harm.
‘Like many criminal actors, O’Connor tried to stay anonymous by using a computer to hide behind stealth accounts and aliases from outside the United States.
‘But this (guilty) plea shows that our investigators and prosecutors will identify, locate, and bring to justice such criminals to ensure they face the consequences for their crimes.’
The US justice department said O’Connor had participated in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion and cyberstalking.
The hackers used social engineering tricks to get access to the Twitter accounts and send out tweets asking followers to send bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money.
The 23-year-old also pleaded guilty to other hacking crimes including gaining access to a high-profile TikTok account.
The US justice department said he had also used technology to stalk a minor.
O’Connor will be sentenced on June 23.