Twitter Hacker Sentenced to Prison for Crypto Scam on Celebrity Accounts

Joseph O'Connor, one of the hackers behind the 2020 Twitter hack, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison and ordered to pay back over $790,000 in illicitly obtained funds. O'Connor, a British citizen, pleaded guilty to seven charges associated with the digital attack, which affected 130 accounts and sowed chaos across the platform. Along with his fellow hackers, O'Connor used his sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes, including conducting a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting computer intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, including a minor victim.