Good day everyone,
I hope you are all well and having an excellent day, welcome to CryptoGod-1’s blog on all things crypto. In this post I will be looking at the story of a British hacker who has been sentenced to five years in a United States prison after he was caught stealing $794,000 worth of crypto.
The SIM Swap Attack
Joseph James O'Conner, 24 years of age and also known as "PlugwalkJoe", was sentenced on Friday, the 23rd of June 2023 after cases brought against him by the Southern District Court of New York. He had been arrested in July 2021 while in Spain, and was extradited to the United States on the 26th of April, 2023. His involvement in hacking relates to a subscriber identity module (SIM) swap attack which happened to an executive of a crypto currency exchange in 2019. On the 9th of May 2023 he plead guilty to the charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The identity of the hacked crypto executive has not been disclosed, but between March and May of 2019 "PlugwalkJoe" and his co-conspirators successfully executed a a cyber intrusion technique known as SIM swapping attacks on three company executives. The Manhattan-based cryptocurrency company had approximately $794,000 worth of crypto stolen at the time, which in today's value would be worth over $1.6 million.
The hackers gained unauthorized access to multiple accounts and computer systems in the process, and after completing the theft they laundered the stolen cryptocurrency through various transfers and transactions. Some of it was exchanged for Bitcoin through the use of cryptocurrency exchange services. A portion of the stolen cryptocurrency was deposited into a crypto exchange account controlled by O’Connor.
Damian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, made the announcement of his prison sentence which had been imposed by Judge Rakoff and noted that O’Connor would be subject to three years of supervised release. He will also be forced to pay $794,012.64 in forfeiture.
Other Charges
On top of the SIM swap attacks, O’Connor also pleaded guilty to multiple other charges filed in the Northern District of California. These included the July 2020 hack of Twitter, computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts, and cyberstalking two separate victims. O’Connor and his crew hacked around 130 prominent Twitter accounts, while they also managed to hack accounts on TikTok and Snapchat. It is believed they made use of social engineering techniques and SIM swapping attacks to commit these crimes. These prominent, compromised accounts were then used to defraud other Twitter users or sell access to them.
O’Connor’s charges include blackmailing, as he blackmailed a victim on Snapchat by threatening to release private messages publicly. The only way for the victim to stop this happening was to promote O’Connor’s online persona. He also stalked and threatened another victim while orchestrating watting attacks by falsely reporting emergencies to authorities or victim's families, stating their life was under threat.
While these crimes did take place years ago, SIM swap attacks are still considered a major issue within the crypto space. The attacks happen when a victim’s phone number is taken over by linking it to another SIM card controlled by the attacker. This then allows the attacker to reroute calls and messages and gaining access to accounts that use SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA).
Have a great day.
Peace. CryptoGod-1.
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