14 DAY TRIAL // Joseph O'Connor, a British citizen aged 22, was arrested on a US warrant in Estepona, Spain, for his alleged involvement in the Twitter hack in July 2020. According to The Hacker News, after the massive social media platform hack, 130 accounts of businesses, politicians, and celebrities were compromised.
The British man was charged due to a criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, making extortive communications, obtaining information from a protected computer, and intentionally accessing a computer without authorization.
Beyond his involvement in the Twitter attack, O'Connor is suspected of being responsible for computer intrusions into various accounts of TikTok and Snapchat users.He is also suspected of cyberstalking a juvenile victim who has yet to be identified, according to court documents.
The July 2020 Twitter hack was one of the most significant breaches in the history of the social media platform
When O'Connor hacked into the Twitter accounts of politicians, celebrities, and businesses on July 15, 2020, it turned out to be one of the largest security breaches in the social media platform's history. He did so with the help of Mason Sheppard, Nima Fazeli, and Graham Ivan Clark. This was a cryptocurrency scam during which he was able to amass more than $100,000 in Bitcoin.
O'Connor, who referred to himself as PlugWalkJoe in an interview with The New York Times last July, said the Twitter credentials were gathered after he found ways into the internal Slack messaging platform of the company, where they were posted.
He told The New York Times that he doesn't care whether authorities arrest him since he believes he didn't do anything wrong. He even stated that he would laugh at them. The arrest comes four months after Graham Clark was sentenced to three years in prison for committing fraud in connection with the incident, which he admitted to.