Bitcoin Forum

A Florida teen just got arrested for Twitter’s huge hack

Early this morning, the FBI, IRS, US Secret Service, and Florida law enforcement placed a 17-year-old in Tampa, Florida, under arrest — accusing him of being the “mastermind” behind the biggest security and privacy breach in Twitter’s history, one that took over the accounts of President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and more to perpetrate a huge bitcoin scam on July 15th.

The teen is currently in jail, being charged with over 30 felony count, including organized fraud, communications fraud, identity theft, and hacking, according to Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren in a just-broadcast news conference describing the arrest.

It’s not clear whether the 17-year-old is the only suspect in the case. “I can’t comment on whether he worked alone,” said Warren. He was arrested at his apartment where he lives by himself, authorities stated.

https://i.imgur.com/edKhP5e.png

UPDATE: 3:30 PM EST — According to the U.S. Department of Justice, two other individuals — 19-year-old U.K. resident Mason Sheppard and 22-year-old Florida resident Nima Fazeli — have also been charged for their alleged participation in the hacks.

Sheppard has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.
Fazeli has been charged with aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer. Both were charged via a complaint filed in the Northern District of California, according to the DOJ's statement.

Among the listed participants in the investigation was blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/7/31/21349920/twitter-hack-arrest-florida-teen-fbi-irs-secret-service

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/73626/florida-arrest-twitter-hacks-bitcoin

Damn dude.

This kid is going to get one hefty sentence. This is identity theft of an extremely serious degree, and could even be considered an act of terrorism considering he exfilitrated the personal data of presidents, ex presidents and members of congress.

There is a 100% chance that they are going to make an example of this kid, I'm expecting 5-10 years in prison at the very least.

I guess the $1 million bounty Justin Sun put on his head was enough to send people on an epic man(boy?)hunt.

Let's see if he can social engineer his way out of jail.

"Not an ordinary kid" ... I wonder what kind of kid there is, whether he worked alone, and how they found him out.
It's a pity to hide such a kid behind bars, I hope he will make a deal and help the United States win the war against China.
Otherwise, America will have problems as a super villain.  :D

Otherwise, America will have problems as a super villain. By the way, he can ask to mitigate his sentence, because he just asked people for bitcoins, and did not arrange a global terror. :)
Also, he didn't force anyone to send bitcoins to who knows where.

If this is true, then it's quite sad that people in position of power are making such hasty judgements about things that they don't even understand. I guess power really does blind people.

I wonder if Trump's accounts got hacked (though it likely couldn't have, because as the article says, it has additional security), then would be call for a ban on Bitcoin? He already made some negative tweets about it last year, and generally his behavior seems exactly the same type as this state attorney's.

The moment those coins moved, I know that someone is going to be pinned. Earlier, I said on a comment that one exchange should have relayed the information to the authorities to get someone arrested on the hack, well I guess they proved me wrong and here we are. Also, since the dude hacked inside an ex-POTUS and other big names' accounts that could possibly contain sensitive information, they wouldn't get him off lightly that's for sure. Then again, we could see some form of 'reformation' for the dude in the end, and be employed even for the government!


I wonder whether Justin Sun would really be good on his words, and to whom would he give the bounty anyways?  ???

Just a boy hunt, I didn't think that the biggest twitter breaching in history will just be made by a 17-yr old boy. I thought it was coordinated attacks from an organization scattered around the globe, this is a hell of a blast! But I'm still in doubt that he did that all alone, there must have been more suspects hiding behind this 17-yr old boy. And I'm wondering if they can really sanctioned that boy that crime, he's under age and must be under the protection of state custody first.

If this is true, I don't think such organization like CIA would just let this big brainer kid to sit and serve his sentence in jail.  :-X

Social engineering can't do anything related to war (cyber) imo.

I guess that's not all about the "bitcoin asking/scamming" of this kid but hacking twitter which is against their rules and policies.

I will not be surprised if he is going to be working under serious guide to unlock some other applications. The guy brain is too hot to be wasted just like that.

It's not possible to get away with a high profile crime like this one, if ordinary people were hacked, you'll not expect the CIA and other security agencies to give their all in the chase to pin the hackers, but the accounts affected are owned by prominent men in the U.S and in the world at large. It was only a matter of time, but getting those behind it was inevitable imo. There will still be a lot of unravelling to be done, this kid is prolly not the mastermind behind this, he is just the first to go down.

I just wonder why this news is hiding here not in the public, I need more verification for such an hack that shook one of the top social media and most influential person in the world, while the news of the apprehension is on few papers. I believe such intelligent kid does not get as much pay as those protecting twitter, as much as the boy could be jailed twitter need to found out other loopholes in their project, more also the scam address should be refunded.

UPDATE: 3:30 PM EST — According to the U.S. Department of Justice, two other individuals — 19-year-old U.K. resident Mason Sheppard and 22-year-old Florida resident Nima Fazeli — have also been charged for their alleged participation in the hacks.

Sheppard has been charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected computer.
Fazeli has been charged with aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer. Both were charged via a complaint filed in the Northern District of California, according to the DOJ's statement.

Among the listed participants in the investigation was blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

https://www.theblockcrypto.com/linked/73626/florida-arrest-twitter-hacks-bitcoin

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All this reminds of the series Mr. Robot.

I can't believe just a 17year old teen carried out that high profile hack. There must be more to this hack talking about bitcoin and giveway. Just a teen couldn't have done that alone for what reason? A proper investigation should be conducted to avoid leaving the bigger devil.

Pretty sure that minors can be tried as adults in exceptional circumstances. Given the publicity of this breach, I expect it qualifies for special treatment.

It's really not too difficult to social engineer somebody. There are plenty of 17-year-olds, and even younger that are vastly more intelligent than your average Twitter employee. It wouldn't come as much surprise if we found out that the kid was operating alone.

He's probably not some sort of prodigy or savant, since it doesn't take an era-defining genius to trick some Twitter plebs or perform a sim swap attack.

I don't think they should make an example of him, but you can bet Twitter users are gunning for the firing squad.

FBI, SSS and sister security agencies should make a thorough investigation to unravel other culprits and the accomplished of the 17 year old suspects the other culprits should be arrested ASAP, hacking of such magnitude will surely involves some links who might had contributed one way or the other towards the twitter hack possibly an insider might be involved too I don't believe that the kid committed the crime alone the hack is more of a sophisticated and high profile one.

I knew that sooner or later those hackers are going to be caught, specially when he targeted high profile accounts that included an ex-President of the United States of America. And then a news surfaced after the hack that it was indeed teenagers who perpetuated this, they even interview him.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/17/technology/twitter-hackers-interview.html

FBI stepped up to join the picture and this is the result. Good job.

I agree with @DarkDays, he can be tried as adult here because of the severity of his crimes. Meaning longer jail time for this 17 year old. There are two more suspects, one US based and one in UK.

I believed that those teenagers loves adventure and they are bolder in their target. But this hacks is one on the top I would say, maybe he wanted to make a name for himself in the wrong way. There are still two persons involved in this and I don't think that they are going to arrested someone without any thorough proof. US inter agencies really works this case and its time to put justice regardless if he is a teenager or an adult. And let this be a lesson for Twitter, I'm sure Jack is very happy about the news but they need to improve more on their security so that this kind of incidents won't happen.

For sure this kid isn't alone. The other two were just accessories, obviously hackers won't get caught being too stupid for sending scammed Btc in a centralized exchange lol.
Nevertheless, the US law enforcement did a really good job for busting a blockbuster account breaching in Twitter.
I'm just wondering, the article didn't mentioned about confiscating the scammed Btc. Are the victims will receive back their Btc if they can provide a valid claim through the blockchain record?

I feel pity on him if he will only end his life in jail. I hope they can work around here and just hire him for other vital projects. He's too young to just spend his entire life in prison. He can still change and do something different for his life. Let's see what will be the verdict on him and his accessories.

I was reading the news and I was wondering why a 17 year old can be charged in a case like this even if he is a minor and article in Verge clarified that the law in Florida allows to be charged and possible get prison sentence even if you are a minor on financial fraud cases. I think this minor isn't really an ordinary person since he can do what he did but the wrong thing he done is assume that he can get away with this just for being a minor. Plus finding accomplices with him over the age of 18 just only make him look like he really planned the hack. But since this is just the early stages on the discoveries I doubt we have seen everything and there might really be a real mastermind here controlling these kids.

Well, I can't imagine at that age that kid was expert on hacking, --that's an absolutely ^{[extra ordernary]} kid that we don't know why he becomes that famous hacker. That's just only a kid, how much more if that kid becomes mature I don't know how many becomes a victim of him. Indeed, that kid wasn't alone in this scam operation. Perhaps they are a group and maybe they target those big-time profiles at once in a time.

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I have been researched what that kid his face looks like but I did not find it.

oh please, there are equally better ethical hackers out there so let's not make it seem like this guy is a genius. What they did was wrong and must be punished severely for it. This should go a long way to server to detter other illegal hackers from hatching such plan and rather use their talent for something good.

But wasn't bitcoin the perfect criminal's currency because it's untrackable? :D
Another fake news dismounted. I want to see now what media and crypto haters will say about it. Actually the hackers were taken much faster than in some cases which involved fiat instead of bitcoins. It's a clear sign to hackers and another kinds of scammers they aren't safe for using crypto currency!

If the kid is really that smart, then he can enter a plea bargain, specially if that offer is in that table coming from the prosecutor and in turn reveal how he hacked where is the money now etc. And be in community service + probation for three years out of the prison.

And then work with US agencies and be the good guy next time around. He could have a career as a security experts, so there are a lot of options for him not to waste that talent and used it for good measures.

At 17 years of age what he has done is very big. Along with him two more has been arrested, anyhow this is a group execution. Really hard to breach by a single person. When one is concentrating into the process of hacking, he needs alternate plans to make it successful. This might have been done by the fellow companions. Anyhow government has took it seriously, else this guys could've never been caught this short.

Definitely the government or huge companies will hire him for what he has done. Yeah, he is too young but he have done something that isn't should be done by a 17 years old so he should face those consequences. They filed a lot of cases to him because he targeted strong and high-profile persons' accounts.
Absolutely, no one could possibly learn how to hack accounts by just browsing on the internet or watching videos, It is a group of hackers and he learned from it. But some hacker groups wouldn't do such things like this and I bet that white hackers are already looking some of them.

If the master mind boy of Twitter hacking got arrested then I think the funds what had been stolen can recover easily.
Is this will happen actually? What you think? It should be recovered because who have funds got arrested if suspect is true.

If you want to know how they were tracked, read this https://www.wired.com/story/how-alleged-twitter-hackers-got-caught-bitcoin/ (credit to suchmoon)

I don't think these hackers are particularly smart, people can make themselves look like expert hackers by using some graphical program, but it doesn't change the fact that they know very little about the science of hacking.

MalwareTech is an example of a guy who actually knew his way around things.

The news will start somewhere and start to disseminate to every nook and cranny. This is a piece of fresh news and you don't expect it to have gotten all over everywhere within a short period of time. Just give a few days and you will be surprised to read more about the story. I came across it as headline stories on twitter this morning and it will just be a matter of time before it keeps trending because that twitter hacks really shocked the globe and everyone including will like to know how the boy got to hack those influential people twitter page

I never thought that it's been done by a teenager. Who have thought of that? I guess no one. I thought that this was made by a group of hackers that have been doing this for a long time.

It's possible to retrieve the funds and can be recovered if the boy returns it at his own will or mandated, I don't know the actual procedure on this matter. But if he just shut his mouth and talks not about it, they can't do anything with it. Looking positively, if the funds have been recovered, we will never know if the person assigned will be honest in returning those to the victims. Although, I'm wishing all the best that the funds will be returned gradually to all of those affected people.

Jack Dorsey should hire that kid! Putting him behind bars would be a waste, but on the flipside that didn´t stop them to incarcerate other smart people. I doubt a big media coverage, it would just depict Twitter as not safe as people could expect additional security flaws. I´m curious how they try to get the other kid that resides in the UK.

and what prevented the hacker from accepting money from the Chinese? this is the problem of dealing with hackers who invade other people's things for money, you can never trust and compromise with them


he is very intelligent and knew that in this case many people would be involved and He took advantage to do marketing


I don't know the laws of the USA but I think he can get more than 13 years in prison

At that age, it is really a great skill.

But still, he should not be wasting that skill and knowledge with identity theft, hacking and multiple frauds. He can do better and now he will be facing I think more or less than a decade in jail. That is years and years of wasted time he can use to develop his skill and use it for good.

This kids have great knowledge to conduct this level of hacking. Also being a platform as Twitter, we would think that they are advancing towards security, but there is always someone that is more clever.
That said, Money is the root of this problem. If they are the ones who did it, they will repent the action, because they hacked big accounts and so, they will probably lose their teen years in jail. They could have used this knowledge for ethical hacking, instead of this!

Seriously? Those kids are really that incredible to the extent that they have done such big crime that involves too many cases because of what they have done on hacking well-known personalities accounts and done money laundering. But I still doubt that they are only the ones who have do it all by themselves. Maybe they were just the frontal to hide the biggest names behind the Twitter hack. But if they really did that all alone, they are surprisingly unbelievable to have such high knowledge about hacking because they have carried out such crime that you can only imagine to be done by nerds that have lots of experiences in the field of hacking.

They are still at minor ages but they have already done such big crime. But those were still allegations and under deep investigation so probably as days will pass by, maybe the real ones will be found. I just cannot believe that they can do it if I would be basing on their ages but if they really did it, then their adulthood will be messed up for they will sure to get sentenced behind the bars.

I am sure he is not working alone because that will need more hackers to hack twitter. But if he has high skills in programming, I think he can work alone because he can be able to break the security, and he can enter to the database. But I am amazed that finally twitter hacker arrested, and that hacker is a young boy who can hack twitter account. But if he doesn't work alone, I am not surprised to see that they can break the security with many people who have skills in language programming.

Have you ever heard of Kevin Mitnick?

At age 12, Mitnick used social engineering and dumpster diving[15] to bypass the punch card system used in the Los Angeles bus system. After he convinced a bus driver to tell him where he could buy his own ticket punch for "a school project", he was able to ride any bus in the greater LA area using unused transfer slips he found in a dumpster next to the bus company garage. Social engineering later became his primary method of obtaining information, including usernames and passwords and modem phone numbers.[16]

Mitnick first gained unauthorized access to a computer network in 1979, at 16, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system that Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing its RSTS/E operating system software.[17] He broke into DEC's computer network and copied the company's software, a crime for which he was charged and convicted in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two and a half years.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mails.

Some kids are just smart. The only problem is they're going to make an example out of him to scare off possible followers and copycats.

This could be true but more childish than these people is the security of twitter. And with the history of Kevin Mitnick, probably he social engineered someone inside twitter to give him away sensitive information about users. And twitter too confirmed that they stored users password in plain text on log files. Glad it was some individuals gaining access to social profile, if organized hacking groups had a similar access, they could have created much more havoc or just could have used them to siphon internal data.

Rather than being an expert or genius in that field at a young age, I'm more concerned about the fact that at that young age, he decided to hack and scam other people for money, knowing the consequences. He's still a minor and living by himself, I guess the lack of guidance from his parents is also a factor why he was able to do it.

But at least, the hackers got caught. They are smart enough to hack big accounts, so they probably know the consequences of their actions. Even if he's still a minor, he should be responsible for it. A good job for the part of the authorities for finding them without taking a long time.

In my opinion you are absolutely right, but unfortunately it is very likely that he will be imprisoned for many years, which will make a real criminal from a misguided kid. Almost all of us make a lot of mistakes at a young age. Then most of us change our ways, and become normal people. It is very unfortunate to be thrown in jail before that. I pity this kid.

If Twitter is hacked by 3 teenagers, then Twitter security system is the crappy.
And the funniest thing is that after hacking Twitter, they transferred the stolen cryptocurrency to their own accounts of the Binance and Coinbase exchanges.
Teenagers are accused of being able to destabilize the political situation in the world, but no one blames Twitter for a shitty security system

Definitely not the smartest move of their careers. Rather a career ending move ;)
Smart enough to hack tweeter, not smart enough to know which exchanges are the bigest rats in the industry. At least they had no Gemini accounts.

According to federal agents, Sheppard was found out partly because he used a personal driver’s license to verify himself with the Binance and Coinbase cryptocurrency exchanges, and his accounts were found to have sent and received some of the scammed bitcoin. Fazeli also used a driver’s license to verify with Coinbase,

These guys did full KYC there using their own documents which is already a strike even if you're a legit trader. If you want the IRS to have you on the list do KYC on coinbase. If you do it on CZ's platform who knows where it will end up. Probably sold to some chinese hackers.
Sending coins to coinbase - strike 2.
Sending stolen coins to coinbase - strike 3.

And you're out of the social life. Only butt sex for another 20 years and no money waiting for you when you get out.

Lol. NO. Hiring that kid would be even more stupid and that would send a wrong message to all those who have fallen to the hack and scam. There's no doubt that he's good but I don't think he's one of a kind hacker.

Have you read how the hack was executed? It wasn't Twitter system per se but was some of their employees who had access to the Twitter admin panel who was compromised. It's social engineering.

If you followed the story, Twitter pretty much got a lot of criticisms from the hack. Some government officials even stepped in.

That serve a lesson to anyone think to hack any system or social media accounts, but this is totally a waste of talent if they will let this kids rot in jail since maybe the government can use their talents for certain activities. Provably twitter learned their lessons since imagine there social media site has been hack by teenagers only! For sure their techy guys are scratching their heads on how those kids breach on their security/system.

That makes them low or yet those 3 kids are really like have a very intelligent mind. I still believe that those kids have been manipulated by someone on the inside of Twitter company to pulled off such heist. I cant believe this incident was planned  by themselves.

So the one who give information on these kids were gonna be rich as Justin Sun have a bounty for helping finding the culprit.

Maybe they thought they are just playing hide and seek and no one can really find them. Busted it is, but I am mixed up frustrated and angry. Imagine their just kids!

Couldn't find anything but was there any additional info on if they were also linked to the IG post that claimed they were going to send all the money to charity? Not that it changes anything, but I might have a slightly (tiny) improved opinion of the guy(s) if they really did go on and send some of that money out to a charity. Not that cryptoforhealth.com is up to see what is said.

Have you watched the movie Mister Robot?
The main character said a very wonderful phrase: "It is not systems that are hacked, but people."
It doesn't matter what method was used for hacking: brute force, social engineering, exploits ... the result is achieved.
This will be another show trial with huge terms for the accused.

I don't think that will be the case. They will obviously punish this kid since that is a lot of cases against him. Also, he should even think what they've done would really throw them in jail. I am not a genius but I know better than that.

Well, we got one thing out of this. Every person who reads the news has now heard about bitcoin (possibly in a skewed way), although I suspect most of them still don't understand what it is.

Twitter hackers should be arrested because they have hacked the most popular social site and they attacked on the most vital person in this world.
Now hope all funds should be recovered.

That would help the spread, as there are people who will be curious and begin to seek for more information about this industry, sometimes even
there are things that not good there's still implications that it will help the process. Those hackers did illegal things but brought interest to whoever read that  news.

It will also gives warnings to people who are using social medias, the chance of being hacked is not by far if this young boys able to do it for sure there are more attack to expect.

Better securities for those well known social media site will be expected though, after this hacking thing adjustment should be done  to protect
all those users who are using  their service.

That kid must be extraordinary intelligent. i agree completely that Bitcoins will get more publicity from the news about the hack. Again, it also shows the vulnerability of these platforms and the fact that they can be hacked at any time.

the onus is on crypto traders and investors to guide their wallet details to avoid being hacked. No matter the security of this websites, hackers are always on the lookout for flaws and loose-ends. According to federal agents, Sheppard was found out partly because he used a personal driver’s license to verify himself with the Binance and Coinbase cryptocurrency exchanges, and his accounts were found to have sent and received some of the scammed bitcoin.  the bolded were exactly what gave him away.

whichever way, lets be carefull with our online accounts
 

They should be arrested but what sentence would you give them?

I find it a bit awkward that you can be sentenced for 5 years in prison when you rape someone and a hacker who exploits a vulnerability in a program can get 10.

I wonder what sentences they will get but probably higher than a typical rapist or a thief.

Seem too odd that they are caught this way, I really think they got the wrong suspects. They hack some accounts with and knowns how cryptocurrency works but just sent the funds they gathered from their scams to binance and coinbase. How are they not aware that binance and coinbase can actually freeze their accounts?

The story seem just made a hacker too naive to be true. For a 17 year old kid who knows about internet, penetration and computer security, somehow it doesn't add up.

Only 17!! and he is doing these shits now. I admire he have a good talent and skills of hacking. But unfortunately he just did an unethical job which will cost him a lot. I am sure the judge will give him a very hard sentence for his shameful work.

Apart from that I also think the same. Are they the real suspect? Or they are only acting like them? A big question!!

Im having the same thoughts.For people who do tend to hack a big company like Twitter and do make such scam crypto or bitcoin attempt then they are fully aware on what they are against into.

Its just really non-sense that they do leave trace or do cash out without any hesitance? Arent they thinking those possibilities for them to be fucked up on using up those centralized platforms?

That careless cost them but actually its a good news.

The US police should be able to dig up information from the 17-year-old boy, because I'm sure he might not work alone in the apartment.
And it is impossible that the child is only assisted by 2 teenagers, if it is true that only 3 teenagers are involved, it means that Twitter
security is very fragile. There must be a number of other professional hackers involved, because of the related hacking incident on a large
scale. It is impossible to do it by only 3 teenagers, and even hacked accounts are famous, so there are a lot of victims. This 3 teenagers
punishment is certain above 5 years in prison.

a 17 years old is still minor and arrest is seem not to be the right word to use when arresting a minor. It is more likely saving them from this kind of their illegal activities. However, here in our place if this teen will turn into his legal age during the time he was in custody then that person will have to face the case in the court and if found guilty then he will get the punishment and usually it will be imprisonment. The prison is one of the shittiest place on earth especially here in our place.

2 words. Alleged and Accused means that they are not sure that these are the ones who really did the famous twitter hacking incident but anyway a 17 year old hacking twitter accounts of famous peoples and the prosecutor said that this isn't an ordinary 17 year old. Hell yeah!!!! :D. A 17 year old hacker isn't normal but this implies that people who are involved in hacking are becoming younger.

I think that these 3 who got arrested are just puppets of a high profile organizations although I don't have any proofs to see but anyway, I'm curious where will be the bounty of Justin Sun will go :D.

I already knew there must have been some other guys who get involved in this when I started to read the first letters of this thread. There's no way this kid can plan and execute that scam all by himself. There need to be some guys who do the hacking, planning, control the money, etc. I'll be waiting for the update as I believe there can be some more guys behind this scam.

i don't see how much they helped at all because according to the story i've read they caught them by investigating centralized databases which had nothing to do with bitcoin in first place. it was mainly the forum they all hung out and communicated in called "OGUsers", there was also Discord they used and among their accounts in this site they were also used the same Email address and same wallet to connect to Coinbase website and Binance. not to mention that their IP addresses were all the same (no TOR, no VPN,...) and were used in all these places!

this makes me wonder why the hell are the media using the term "mastermind" for these dudes :)

https://www.wired.com/story/how-alleged-twitter-hackers-got-caught-bitcoin/

Four words "innocent until proven guilty" that's why you see "Alleged and Accused". The FBI, IRS, US Secret Service were able to gather solid evidences which led to the arrest but the hackers still have to be tried in court.

There's no evidence leading to that. Reading this may help you understand https://www.wired.com/story/how-alleged-twitter-hackers-got-caught-bitcoin/

The good news is that they have arrested a suspected criminal. However, it is doubtful whether the arrested 17-year-old was involved alone. There is a possibility that more people are involved in hacking the accounts of high profile people in the world. Hopefully the concerned authorities will look into the matter. I also believe that if there is any leakage from the Twitter authorities, they will also correct it.

Well, this boy is computer wizard and high probability he is not working alone just to pull off that kind of big attack from famous people and waiting for others to be arrested as well. Too sad to see his hacking skills got wasted again due to fraud attacks but justice must be served at all times because it's a crime he must face it for a long sentence in jail to repent of his wrong doings.

This is really huge, wow, a 17year old kid breached twitter's security :o, and committed one of the biggest cyber crime in history, no doubts they will hand him a huge jail time maybe 10 to 15years.

Exactly what I'm thinking,a 17 year old kid can't actually carry out this operation alone he definitely had some help, I believe there are other accomplices out there, so I agree with @leonardo7, they should carry out more investigation,and catch the guys who helped him.

Nah I doubt they will be so harsh. 5 years in a minimum security prison, sentence lowered due good behaviour, probably no prior record and age and he is out in maybe 2-3 years Imho, with whole life ahead of him.

After release i can see him working as security consultant or something along those lines and making shit load of money.


If they really had someone more serious helping them, they wouldn't be caught in such a stupid way. So exactly because of that I think it was just those kids and not some kind of criminal mastermind behind this.

Of course, just because he iis high skilled that isn't a justification or reason for mild sentence. Crime is a crime and ww witness all the time how very few cyber criminals get caught and sentenced.
And maybe the was working alone, without accomplice but further investigation should reveal more facts.

I have reviewed the case and it is not about the intelligence but the lack of security in dealing with sensitive tools by the twitter officials. All these kid did was to enter the twitter slack channel where the back end tool was pinned and then collect all the database of the employees and then bombard them with phishing emails and there is nothing intelligent about it, i am not specifying which tools they used to bypass the 2 FA to gain access to these accounts but it is not that hard. The stupidity of their actions leads to them as they never used anything to bypass or hide their tracks nor they had no idea how to remove those logs.

To everyone who is calling them intelligent

Intelligence is one thing and clearly these kids did not have when it comes to hacking, they took the opportunity presented and ran with it and got caught.

He must serve his sentence since the crime he do is not a joke, they create much trouble so this must be a warning to all jerk heads there trying to hack some certain sites especially social media accounts, although they are talented but this is not a license for anyone to have a low penalty for their actions. The government could use their talents in future if they will ask those guys to work with them.

Genius kid, unfortunately, he used his skills in a bad way, he will rot in jail now, that's a lot case being filed on him and the bad thing is that talent cannot longer be used, unless he knows how to hack the code in the jail and escape.

Kids nowadays are very smart, most of the hackers I guess are young, they just love to experiment but without enough knowledge on the law.
If this kid is aware of the possible jail time he will face, I'm sure he will not even try to do this.

Still a good news for us as this shows authorities are competent.

Holy smokes! He was just 17? Oh well, he wasn't an ordinary 17-year old kid. He is truly gifted, but using it in a very bad way. It's just that instead of a brighter future, he chose the "dark side".

Same thing goes to the other youngsters who assisted him in this major Twitter hack. He truly deserved the punishment that he gets along with his poor minions.

A 17 years old hacked twitter.Its an unbelievable news.And I think its not possible to make this kind of scam alone.If group involved I hope that all the members will caught.And he is hell of a genius I think.But he has choosen the wrong direction.And I think his age will not be considered.Because the way prosecutor says he is not a ordinary kid and he has other charges too basically he ruined his life.Because of twitter hack many people lost their Btc. and more money.I am just happy that police successfully arrested him

I am being surprised by hearing this news. Because a 17 years guy hacked Twitter account and get too many Bitcoin. How he do that? I think there a team who do that. There is needed a good investigation for catching all the hackers. Then give them strong punishment.

Oowoo :o :o 17 years teen broke twitter security. :o Probable his not a ordinary kid. I mean in that age i was busy to play video games and if i'm not wrong many people was. :D This news is really unexpected. But one thing sure that twitter should ashamed them self. They really need to take proper step for their security otherwise people definitely gonna leave that platform for sure.

Knew that the hack can't involve just one person. They are group that must have been planning the hack for long.
So many offences for a 17yo kid, Twitter should be ashamed about how it happened. Heads up to the kid or maybe the hackers because only a genius would pull such huge stunts

The kid just ruined his career, he was not that smart in doing these and then open to tracking everything he does, it did not even take a long time to catch them, they hacked and then they wanted to make money with it and everything happened quickly, they hacked the accounts and then planned to sell those accounts and raised a lot of bitcoin and then within a week they are caught. Incredible story. ;D

This kid is not totally kid having matured to do a hacking technique is not for kid, but come to think if they are only do this? Or someone teach them? The case and sentence that give to them is serious case for a kid like them and it's good that they got arrest so they can pay to what cause they do. Hoping that they will be repent and learn for their mistakes.

This kids will learned things in the Hardaway, hacking known people brings them more curious
and vigilant knowing that they are exposed now
And the chance that it will happen again is not impossible, this young dudes will be an eye opener
though. Expect more tight securities.


They knew that because they are exposed, they are just adventurous thinking that they'll be
able to break the law completely.
Now they will realized the after effect of being adventurous in the wrong ways, the punishment
will give them the regrets from the things that they've done.


Indeed, giving things into justice served by the authorities makes them more effective on this space.

But are they going to return at least partial of the stolen bitcoins to the users? Nothing mentioned if they recovered some and at least return it to people that got screwed by this mess. It is a pity that this youngster used his skills in a bad way. If he just contacted twitter and submit the flaws or bugs in their system, maybe the story would be different.

Not an ordinary kid, the Prosecutor is right because this kid has some special talent which can be use to grow himself in techy world but this kid was wrong on committing a crime that could take his freedom and develop his skills. Maybe he thought this is just a game, they are playing with it but not knowing how they'll end up if they got caught.

I read in the news that these hackers were able to amassed around $100k of bitcoin, but not sure on how much they really make in total, maybe higher, but it doesn't matter now, what matter is the perpetrator got arrested and their scams has stopped, for sure this is a group, hopefully he will cooperate so others will be arrested too and pay for their crimes.

https://twitter.com/zackwhittaker/status/1283594532140056576

I wonder if he'll have to work for the government while he's doing his time. Definitely worth using his talent in a benevolent way

Same with my thinking right now. With his capabilities, this talent can be use by the government.

There's a good place for him to develop more without breaking any laws again, if he will enhance his skills by helping the government

he will be more useful from his chosen filled.

It was really shocking to know that the people behind the big hack of Twitter accounts of some famous personalities are just teenagers. It is amazing how those teenagers have thought and executed such crime even at a younf age. Surely they were gifted with talent when it comes to technology and hacking techniques. It is just awful that the talent they have was used in a very wrong way which is to commit a crime. For sure they would take the consequences of their actions behind bars even at such a young age they have. At this time they have already wasted their talents and of course their life for committing a big crime. Imagine hacking the well-known personalities Twitter accounts and taking down tons of amount of money. That will surely be sentenced with many cases in exchange.

Kids at this times do possess a very big minds to do impossible things possible even at a very young age. It was just veey awful that they did not use such talents for good. Up to this point of time I still doubt that those teenagers are alone to execute such crime maybe they have some old ones with them and they were just the ones being busted for such act. But if they really did do it just on their own, they are really amazing but such a waste of gifted knowledge and talent because they just use it for crime.

Reminds me of the Ross Ulbricht situation where he was a smart guy but got by one simple screw up that was tied to him personally.


I don't have any sympathy for them. They knew what they were doing and they were trying to scam innocent people (though you had to be pretty stupid to fall for their obvious doubler scam). They were apparently making a lot of money hacking into old and abandoned twitter accounts and selling them for big money. If you have a twitter with an in demand name or and 'OG' account you can sell them for quite a lot.


Why would he have to work for them? He'll get a prison term not a slavery deal.


Maybe he should have used his talents better in the first place and got a good paying job rather than becoming a cyber thief.

To be honest, I was surprised to find out that Twitter hackers turned out to only 3 teenagers. This is totally unexpected,
I imagine the culprit is some professional hackers. But the reality is quite surprising, even though this is a technological
crime which has a big effect.Imagine what was hacked was a famous peoples account, surely the victims are very many.
And the penalties that are accepted 3 teen hackers this is definitely quite heavy.

Damn I remember back when I was 17 years old my mind was all about online games and hanging out with my friends and this kid already done something like this alarming and for sure he wouldn't be enjoying the next year's of his life.
I also doubt that it was only him that made this mess maybe he got some help but doesn't want to or he is afraid to tell who help him.

It's really surprising that a 17 year old teen pull up such a massive hack on twitter, with all the felony charges against him, he will serve not less than 20 years if found quilty of those crimes. This is sure a challenge for mega platforms to up their game to prevent their servers from being preyed on by hackers

Rather than sentencing him to jail, they will probably "hire" him in the FBI as a counter-hacking agent

The guy has already committed a crime. Do you think it will be wise to give all the resources FBI have? Just imagine what he can do and hide his trails. Giving him a job in FBI means encouraging him. He wont learn a lesson from it.

No doubt the kid has a talent, but he used it in a wrong direction.

Yea, its kind of a criminal mentality they satisfies them self by doing things against the law, this kind of job thrills them. The total psychological mind of such a person should explore before assigning any job like FBI, else he is capable of doing something horribaly extraordinary.

I have the same thoughts as you. these three teenagers might still have another organized group to launch this attack on Twitter and manage all of their strategies. Teen 17 only became a mascot and two of them became accessories. This case must be explored in more depth to find out all their networks so as not to leave the other suspects or even the people who are really behind all this hacking. These teenage geniuses did the wrong thing by doing hacks that hurt everyone.

For BTC obtained from scammed, it will probably be returned to the owner according to the record of the transaction carried out in blockchain, perhaps waiting for all the trials to finish, because this BTC is still a strong evidence to ensnare them into prison.

It was nearly unbelievable to know that the people behind the big hack that happened to Twitter that hacked the accounts of the well-known personalities are just teenagers. It is so doubtful to think how those teenagers be capable to setting up such a big crime at their very young age. How did they make that thing happen or how did they acquire such amazing talent that seems to be wasted because they have used it for bad doings. I still cannot believe that they are the ones responsible for that crime. If they really are, I think they have other people together working with them because it is really quite impossible to think how a group of teenagers be able to hack a big and well-known social media platform and to think even hacked big personalities account and stole a big bunch of money.

I think those teenagers are just the dummy to hide the big masterminds behind that crime. But if they really did it on their own, that was a very surprising and amazing part to believe how they have done such. It is just that they have wasted their talent and knowledge which can be a good asset if they have chosen to use it for good.

AFAIK, the way that he gained access to these accounts wasn't anything particularly impressive. I haven't been keeping up to date with it, and I've only skimmed over it, but it seemed like it was either a social engineering a representative of Twitter which allowed them to gain access to the internal tools, or they simply compromised one of the staff of Twitter. This might have been a simple way of gaining access, and there's no reason to believe that this was a particularly impressive feat. I know that the prosecutor suggesting that this teenager wasn't the typical teenager, but without specifics its hard to draw a conclusion to what it meant by that statement, and in what context.

Although, I think this teenager will be made an example of. Its very rare for so many high profile accounts to be hacked, and used as a outright scam in a small amount of time. Also, what's the verdict on the stolen money? How are they going to be handling that situation?   

According to the official Twitter support (https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1289000138300563457), the attackers have targeted an employee via a "phone spear phishing" attack.
How such an attack could be performed is described here (https://grahamcluley.com/twitter-phone-spear-phishing/), for example:
- A Twitter employee could have received a message on his phone to call a certain number
- The employee is then forwarded to a fake helpdesk employee
- The fake helpdesk employee uses social engineering techniques to trick the Twitter employee into handing over his access data

I had thought a well known hacker group would be responsible.  I'm sure nobody would've expected a bunch of teenagers to get passed twitter's security walls. While the incident wasn't anything spectacular or new (social engineering ish), it goes to show how easy it was to get access to some high level stuffs at twitter with little efforts. Funny thing is the hack happened months earlier, it only came to light and twitter didn't know about it. when it was used for making scammy tweets.

Makes me wonder how secured our data and accounts on big platforms like twitter are.

Graham Ivan Clark, 17, of Tampa. Unfortunately he has a criminal mind. With the Twitter attack there are already 30 criminal charges against him. The defense attorney argues the following in addition to stating that his client has more than $ 3 million worth of Bitcoin.


The Twitter employees who were bribed. What about them? and his accomplices. Possibly we will know more at the trial.

I know only one person who committed crime (more serious than this crime) and currently working and roaming freely. He is Kevin Mitnick (just google search it :D).

I know that this teenager committed a crime but I know that he can be helpful with the other high ranked organizations like CIA and FBI with his hacking skills. The only mistake that he did is that he used his skills in a negative way instead of being a white hat hacker.

I dont believe that this hackers are clever enough or just used phishing links to steal staff account and managed to collect email and password of those twitter profiles, did they actually penetrate the security system of twitter? or just a fault of a staff? If they are good enough in hacking then try to secure first not to locate their identity before doing any stupid acts. 

this was not a simple screw up though! they were all in the same circles on same websites with their real IP addresses (no Tor or anything) and were also signed up on centralized custodial wallets like Coinbase with again the same IP address and their wallets were also linked to the same address they used to scam!

what they did was more like going to rob a bank and then taking your drivers license out to show it to the camera with your face and the bag of money in your other hand :D

#pooya87 I want to agree with you on this one... It seems more like amateur hour script kiddies hack to me. Someone might even have used them as a puppet, by showing them how to do this, knowing that it would lead to their arrest.

How do you make that many mistakes and think you can get away with that? They used no mixer services, leading to a Blockchain breadcrumb trail back to them on a centralized exchange? (They did not even have to make use of Chainanalysis to compile that information)  ::)

I hope they recovered enough of the money for restitution to the victims of this scam, but unfortunately no amount of money will restore the damage that was done to the reputation of Twitter and Bitcoin.  >:( >:( >:(

still not sure the kid is working alone, but what is the real motive that he did that really makes ugly bitcoin in everyone's eyes, actually I often see many youtube channels also hacked and once again they do live broadcasts to commit fraud, it's really a serious crime, but we realize also he still looks young there is still a lot he must learn in his life, so I think with that made him learn from this bad experience, I just saw this news here but did not find the hacker's face  ???

Identity theft is serious crime and should be really punished by the law accordingly. I think this is one of the negative impacts of technology, people are having intentions to take advantage of other people with the use of things in this modern world. I believe that there are powerful individuals behind this crime, people who are much authoritative over these minors.

The kid was alone. Probably he get bumped on people who are experts on computer's securities, seen potential on the kid, thought him about more about this crimes, and use him to being the main suspect and hide the truth that there's also other people working with the kid.
Or maybe he has enough talents and intelligence to be able to do such thing.

Kevin committed crime in the year when "the Internet was young", it had weak security and people were naïve. Hacking was not so popular. What was one of his first crimes? He copied a software. What were his crimes ? Damaging security, computers. Security organization simply needed his knowledge and that is why he is "roaming freely".

What this Twitter hacker did ? Purposefully stole money. He knew what he was doing from very first click. He knew the consequences he might get and still he did it.

CIA and FBI a full of specialists like this twitter hacker. With flawless reputation. Why would they need a criminal in their team? He would be a "sleeping wolf among sheep" or a "bomb with a timer".

I have heard quite a few times that in such cases where big companies get hacked they find the hacker and when he is about to go to jail the company hires them as their cybersecurity employee. What do you guys think ? Will these guys get a job at Twitter too ?  ;D

I'm also thinking of this. If Twitter won't hire them and no one will bail them, there's a chance that they will work on Pentagon or any US department or might be the secret service. That's also based from those news that I have heard in the past.

If that's just a conspiracy, well it made me believed a lot all of my life since when I was a teenager. But if those things were for real, they will have a chance to correct what they've done.

Otherwise, they have to pay the damages that they have brought.

Lol Justin Sun promised to give $1 million to anyone that’s going to find the Twitter hackers, so now that the people behind has been caught by the FBI, IRS and other agencies have got the boy, is he going to give the money to them? ??? Because someone mentioned this the last time, that what if the Twitter hackers are caught by the FBI? So I guess he’s going to give an excuse with that and won’t be giving any money to anyone lol.


Yea, sure I was also surprised when I saw the first news that a seventeen years old kid was arrested because of the Twitter hacks. I was once discussing the Twitter hack with my friend when it happened earlier, and he said that the hackers must be some professional hackers that has been hacking for years and has some super computers lol. And now look at what it turned out to be.... Kids!

These millennials, how could they be so stupid? This kind of thing, you cannot absolutely go against your own country, even with the infamous "7 proxy" whatever stupid media culture portrays.

If they were, i don't know Russians, Chinese, Iranians or North Koreans, places where America can't reach, i would get it. But Americans against Americans?; well what can i say. Just breaching an American company server is bad enough, lets ignore the many affected individuals all right and powerful enough to permanently ruin this kid's life... Its suicidal, i don't think the common black hat is dumb enough for this.

And on top of that there was that juicy bounty, which would lure the others. Yup, not gonna end good. Lets see how many more are involved, so in the end it was a bunch of kids for the lulz. Unless they recruit him or something, which i bet some of them dream of, but i doubt it its not that stage in history anymore. The State has plenty of skilled employees already, even the military, for "cyber" operations. Those romantic days of "do a great hack and get hired" are long gone.

5 to 10 years really sounds small for America. Unless he does a lot of negotiation giving names, etc. I remember how Manning got busted for trusting Lamo who in turn was another idiot turned informant...

If they did this against China, Wechat, TikTok whatever, they would probably be getting a medal in the Whitehouse instead (and recruitment probably) :P

This is really shocking I wasn't expecting that the person behind the biggest Twitter hacking event was just a 17 years old kid.
In an early age he already throw away his future but I guess it would depend if the government decides to use his skill and make some deal out of it.
But to be honest it is really scary how this 17 year old make it happen.

^ Same here, but I have doubt that there are too many of them, and not that kid can't do this alone.
That kid has terrible skills in hacking if government will hire that kid to work with them and busted criminals activity which is very good deeds for cyber investigations, much better. Recently I watched the news on this youtube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1J5q_QOWpE, Isaw that guy hacker face and look like he is really scary. Nevertheless, those others hopefully will be caught as soon as possible.

Its sad but this is indeed part of the reality where those hackers do able to breach out big companies will surely have the potential that would really be get hired.
What would you able to do if the government would make such decision? none right. They do see these individuals to be a good add up into their security system sector
thats why they dont waste up their talents and knowledge by just putting them up to jail but rather they do absorbed and make of those skills for further
enhancements when it comes to security aspects but i do agree into your point that crime should really be paid off first before anything else.

This is huge in terms of adoption because regulators will know that you can trace those scammers that use Bitcoin as scheme to manipulate and steal money from people through pyramid scheme's, and criminals cannot used it as there will be consequences.
Bitcoin cannot be used as a tool for money laundering, because the Blockchain is open to the public and its pseudonymous.

I hope that you are right about the impact that it has with regards to mass cryptocurrency adoption because this could either scare the people knowing that they could be a victim, or it will propel hackers to find new ways to get away from stealing cryptocurrency, I hope this also propel law enforcement agencies to further their grip in making sure that using cryptocurrency is safe from this hacks. Regarding the kid who was arrested for the hacks, I think if reformation was enforced instead of incarceration, the skills he have can be put to good use and not just to this kid, this also applies to other hackers who could be guided into straight path.

That's exactly what I mean. Those kids weren't born criminals. I would throw in jail every song writer and film director who romanticized criminal activity first, because such kids are the product of their "art". In fact, I wouldn't throw in jail writers and film directors, because no one should go to jail for art, but, I mean, to make those kids rot in jail for the rest of their lives is even more wrong. They should be dishonored for their actions, but their talent must be used for the benefit of society, and no one can work effectively when in prison.

I have watch a youtube video concerning a hacker that gets arrested and putted to jail for almost 4 years behind bars, he is considered a million dollar hacker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icyTUMjlvMg), and right now, he is doing a bug bounty job and it really pays allot with this kind of talent. I am not saying that most of us should pursue hacking, but with these kids with exceptional talents, they should first learn how to repent and change, because real money will come in legal ways.

Indeed, youth has not experienced life. That is the end of the act of belittling young Americans in the law. He broke into celebrity accounts and scammed people's money. Fortunately, he did not bring any false news about politics. Although he made some money, I think that money will never be used because it is monitored on blockchain technology.

These kids are in a serious trouble but honestly at that age they managed to do such thing the hacking of some big personalities and scamming other people.
They needs to face his consequences for that, I've seen the address they posted and a lot of people really do send Bitcoins to the address.

ya.ya.yo!

But we will never know what will happen to them if there will be no reports by the media. If a company or if the government truly sees the potential on them, they will simply absorb them.

I'm expecting that if there will be no more updates and news about this issue, it's like that they'll let the issue die eventually and we will never know what happened to them. If they have been hired and employed.

The arrest of Graham Clark of the Twitter hacker, who posted a fake Bitcoin giveaway on the accounts of a famous figure, echoes the discourse that crypto asset transactions are easier to trace than in the normal money system (fiat money).
Chainalysis company, from the United States (US), for example, helps the US government to track Bitcoin obtained by Twitter hackers. Now cryptocurrency has been integrated with law enforcement measures in many countries, for example exchanges in partnership with the government so that Bitcoin transactions are more easily tracked, which are related to crime.

This is the result of lack of parental supervision, so teenagers who hack Twitter use their skills for bad things.
Hopefully this is a lesson for other parents, in order to improve the way they educate their children and provide
supervision of children's activities and interactions. If it's not like the three teenagers who are finally caught
because they have hacked Twitter and used it to deceive many people.

Pretty sure those will be put to prison and maybe there are some stories needed to disclose here. There is no way that only 17 year old could do this without those people around that are much more knowledgeable in this hacking activity. I think that the 17 year old was just a bait for the real one who do this hacking activity. Well this will probably a long way before this can be resolve. Hoping for the best of the investigation although the prosecutor had already been convince that the 17 year old is no ordinary 17 years old having the knowledge on hacking.

That is such a good example of what talented hackers can do. Thank you!

The video isn't that long, it's less than 10 minutes, but there's so much valuable info in it. By donig legitimate hacking you can earn 20k USD for a single report, 160k USD in a single day, 636k USD withing one year. That's what happened to Tommy DeVoss, the hero of the story, after he served 4 years behind bars for being a "bad" hacker, and decided to become a "good" one.

There's also an info on how other legitimate hackers are doing:

https://i.imgur.com/s0WgeTj.png

I think it is possible to make even more money by collaborating with criminals. But if 636k USD per year is not enough for you, it is called greed, and you deserve to spend most of your life in prison. That's how I think about it.

Due to the degree of the hack, he's going to face the sentence and nothing more in my opinion. Although, a critical look into this situation shown that such a teen shouldn't have access to such information that granted him access to Almighty Twitter accounts. The hack was massive and believe me all the complaisance will be fish out and jail accordingly. He deserve to rest and learn the hard way in jail. When a brain is hot, then learn to control it positively and not negatively, sorry teen!.

A juvenile of the past is really different from today. The future generations become more techy savvy without a proper nurture of heart. The crimes have been committed nowadays are made by minority. Seems like they don`t really care upon the consequences because they only want their desires. Hacking popular person of crypto and business are not easy unless you have a deep knowledge about dark web. Anyway, I think it is good to guide him rather than he will be in jailed. Because he can do more legal things in the future rather than to be a enemy of the government.

How the FBI tracked down the Twitter hackers
There is no perfect crime.
The ZDNet writing team put together a timeline with the documents filed in court by the DOJ.

Teenagers made a lot of mistakes. Here KYC demonstrated why it is important to apply it.
In the hacker circle they feel the need to get popular by making a remarkable attack and spreading it.

We can see the vulnerability that is in the internet. But important because developers will be working to make platforms more secure.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/how-the-fbi-tracked-down-the-twitter-hackers/ (https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/how-the-fbi-tracked-down-the-twitter-hackers)

It saddens me to hear some news about this hacked account on twitter. In this time of pandemic a lot of bad guys are everywhere and I don't know what benefits they could get on hacking this twitter account. And what saddens me the most is the hacker, he is younger than me and it seems like his parents didn't taught him how to do good deeds.