Authorities have found the culprits for the hacking incident that affected multiple verified Twitter accounts a few weeks ago. According to experts from a cyber security consulting firm, a 22-year-old man and two teenagers have been accused of improperly breaking into the accounts of personalities such as Barak Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates with the intention of deploying cryptocurrency fraud.
Authorities say the main perpetrator of the attack is Mason Sheppard, a 19-year-old British man. Also known as “Chaewon”, he is accused of committing the attack on the social network, as well as other crimes such as money laundering and electronic fraud in complicity with Graham Clark, 17. The 22-year-old Nima Fazeli, based in Orlando, Florida, has been accused of inciting these crimes, as well as collaborating at some key moments.
“We appreciate the rapid intervention of law enforcement,” a Twitter statement on the arrests mentioned. For its part, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) only made the arrests known to the public, so the identities of the defendants are leaks to the press. According to the experts of the cyber security consulting company, a few days ago Clark began by publishing some messages using the compromised profiles; these publications invited users to invest in Bitcoin. Authorities say Clarke got more than $100,000 USD this way.
Tweets asked users to send money to an anonymous Bitcoin address. In return, users would receive $2,000 USD for every $1000 USD sent.
Andrew Warren, Hillsborough State’s Attorney, told the press that his office would file charges for 30 felonies against Clark, who is in the custody of the authorities. The prosecutor added that Clark will be tried as an adult. The social network had mentioned that hackers used a vishing scam to gain access to the affected accounts, attacking some Twitter employees: “The attack was based on exploiting multiple human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems,” the social network says.
In total, hackers attacked 130 accounts, compromising 45, accessing 36 inboxes and downloading data from 7 other accounts, the cyber security consulting experts mention. A Dutch politician acknowledged being one of the affected users, in addition to the aforementioned celebrities. Authorities believe the attackers pretended to be part of Twitter’s support team, or a telecommunications company to complete the attack.
For further reports on vulnerabilities, exploits, malware variants and computer security risks, it is recommended to enter the website of the International Institute of Cyber Security (IICS), as well as the official platforms of technology companies.
He is a well-known expert in mobile security and malware analysis. He studied Computer Science at NYU and started working as a cyber security analyst in 2003. He is actively working as an anti-malware expert. He also worked for security companies like Kaspersky Lab. His everyday job includes researching about new malware and cyber security incidents. Also he has deep level of knowledge in mobile security and mobile vulnerabilities.
