Bitcoin Forum

I'm pretty sure that the Twitter hack is still fresh in our memory, this is high profile because it involves a lot of crypto exchanges like, @coinbase, @Gemini, and @binance and then celebrities, @JeffBezos, @BarackObama, @elon_musk, @JoeBiden, @BillGates, and @WarrenBuffett.

And Graham Ivan Clark was charge last year and now agreed on Tuesday to be sentenced as a youthful offender to three years in prison, + three years of probation.

Here are the official docs: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20515610-plea-agreement-acknowledgment-of-waiver-of-rights-bc-6f018852-673e-4df1-85da-4c5629856265

https://www.sao13th.com/2021/03/prosecutors-reach-plea-agreement-in-case-of-twitter-hacker-graham-clark/ (please note that access might be block for some region due to security reasons).

What are your thoughts of the sentencing? he has served seven months already of the three years sentenced on him.

There is nothing bad for 3 years jail term, it is not bad at all if truly found guilty, has he confirmed it true, then 3 years is good. But this does not stop other scammers and criminal hackers from doing their work to exploit money from people, this is what we should concentrate on, to never trust anyone online, use 2fa to protect our social media accounts, having the 2fa hardware or having the software on a different device, this will be enough to protect us from such hackers while we should all the time also think of other possible means to protect ourselves from online hackers and scammers generally.

That's a short term jail time for him. During the past years, when there were hackings like this but don't involve a scam, they were hiring and taking the hacker into the company that has been hacked. But in this case, it has scam involved so I do not think that even Twitter will take him.

But that doesn't change the fact that this kid has hijacked Twitter and accounts that were affected are not normal accounts but from prominent people of the society and can be classified as premium.

I think him pleading guilty really help him reduce the sentence.

And as he has served already, in just a couple of years he could be out and then probation in three years. I think that's good enough. He is still young and maybe that's one reason that the sentence is not that harsh for some of us. Institutions are trying to give him a chance to redeem himself and use his talent in good way that can help the society. Like fighting flaws in a system or try to break it, sort of becoming a white ethical hacker or something.

Bad timing :D :D :D

After all the hacked accounts and stunts, they managed to get a total of under $200k.

Just check how many idiots bit on the latest 'Tesla x10' giveaway...

I exactly think the same way with you. He is still very young and I hope that it will be a very good lesson for him. And it looks like he really has a big talent on hacking and I think the government should convince him to be a white ethical hacker and work for the sake of his country.

how much he stole by the way?

I guess 3 years is not that long though, he plead guilty so it will start counting and he can still get out with that money if its still on him. Looks like not a serious crime since the punishment is 3 years only, but I'm hoping people read this so they'll be aware of this kind of scam he made.

Jail term looks too small compared to what he did in the social media community because almost every popular person's account got hacked and used to stole money from the people with the name of giveaway. I am not sure how much money was recovered/seized from the scammer until now.

Jail term definitely looks small in comparison to several life sentences that Ross got for far less of an impact to big corporations and could of cost them billions in damage control to their reputations if this kid-hacker got away and did it again.
Check out the thread above quoted about this twitter hacker who could of kept on scamming people on and on causing havok to Jack Dorsey's media platform on how they handle it's security procedures alone.
One word for another to take this one's place in the future: Exploit.

There's no problem with the sentencing. But I think on top of the years in prison, the suspect should also return the entire amount scammed from all the victims down to the last centavo. That's the most important thing to me. If I were a victim, I don't care anymore about how many years the man will spend in jail. I only need that my money shall be returned.

Ah yes, that incident.
Good thing I don't follow those celebrities, well not that I would be affected anyway if I even see them making those crypto-related posts.

I don't have any thoughts about the dude's sentence, but instead I realize that everyone can be a victim in social media of these types of schemes regardless if one is a celebrity or just a typical/ordinary person next door.
It even shows that even these accounts of a large platform can be social engineered.
I am even more concerned when it comes to Facebook because there are a lot of scams popping up in random comment sections.

I personally think it's a long prison term for a guy so young but I suppose that kind of crime gets him in a different prison. 2.5 years of focused time do study or do something else would have been useful for me at that age. He might even just get a super good job once he's out. I mean with a CV like that, who won't want to hire you?

In fact, I have a different view, when a hacker commits a malicious act, he must be punished by the law. However, the government where Ivan Clark lives should have the initiative to develop its capabilities and expertise in operating the site and be used as a team in strengthening defense systems, both in the national security system and in the crypto world. because basically a hacker does this to make himself known. the point is to be recruited and nurtured and directed to the path that suits their talents. However, for all that, the criminal act must still be carried out in accordance with the applicable laws and procedures.

Probably be out by 20 years old, then 3 years of probation and not touching computers, by 23 some ABC agency hire him, the future looks bright for this "criminal",  ;D

Throughout history, we have seen hackers being taken care of the government because they have the talent. I wouldn't be surprised in this case, we might not hear him in the next 5 years because he is working underground as a analyst already.

We are not in the place of judge and surly your decisions and discussions here, can't change anything for him. But, just as a comment I would say, 3 years is not enough for him at all. Some people were trying so hard for years to save some money and they were searching for a way to earn some profit over their money they saved after years of working hard and now he scammed the money just in a few minutes, the 3 years of jail time is not enough at all for this person.

For all those saying the prison sentence is less compared to the crime conducted by this young hacker this was the main reason.

He has made more than $100k by hacking twiiter accounts of Bill gates,Elon Musk,Biden to ask users to deposit funds over Bitcoin address in order to double the funds.His lawyer claimed that he already has returned the funds to the users.So we don't need to judge the statements of high officials.

He scammed thousands of dollars which is why I feel that 3 years is optimal in this case along with another 3 years of probation. In my opinion, he got lucky because he was sentenced as a minor.

He had to return the funds forcefully which is why he is still guilty and deserves being punished for 3 years. This will spread some fear among crypto scammers which is the biggest plus point.

I agree with it. The thing he has done is not negligible and I also think that it is a fair verdict for his crime. I was expecting even more than 3 years and he should be thankful for this. I hope that he won't continue like this after completing his sentence. Otherwise, he will probably be condemned in a much worse way for it.

Crime is crime no matter who is involved. What the guy committed was a crime punishable by law and the has taken its course. It will serve as a deterrent to others hackers in the future. Knowing that no body is above the  law.

Does hackers usually get cut or this guy is still an amateur in the game? Am just curious why going through the trouble if the end result will be in a cell wall! I sense money was not the main goal of the hack if not getting caught should not be an option.

Nah, I doubt that it will served as a deterrent to other hackers, they will still continue, crypto involves a lot of money, and only a few have been caught like in this case. The only difference is that this is a high profile heist, that's why FBI was involved and this kid was caught. But if this is just a hack on some Defi, even resulting to millions, those hackers are going to be free up to this day and continue to look for their next target.

I forgot again how much money the hackers managed to collect, but as far as I can remember the numbers are quite fantastic. To be honest,
3 years in prison for me was not worth the harm he had done. Moreover, it does not guarantee that after being released from prison the person
will turn into a good person. Even though I didn't agree with the punishment given, I couldn't do anything about it. Maybe all I can do is always be
aware of all the scams that are currently happening in the crypto world. Because even though the hacker is changing into a good person, there are
still others who will replace him. The conclusion is that crime will always be there, therefore we ourselves must be vigilant.

He is a teenager, you wouldn't want to destroy a teen's life all for one mistake he did, three years I believe is fair enough. Basically, he is a misguided teen probably parents not at home all the time. If guided properly he could even work for the government or military for his skills, I'm sure the court considers his life after prison which led them to only give him 3 years.

He could have pleaded guilty in exchange for something too, there could be a lot of things he discovered on the Twitter accounts.

It is very rare to see these sort of hackers getting any sort of punishment. They are always confident that they will never get caught, as they use VPN/TOR. A lot of people lost money when these guys managed to hack the Twitter account of Elon Musk and managed to post the phishing link. The prison term handed out to the perpetrator will probably discourage other hackers from such criminal activities.

The amount of BTC that he gained from this hack would be worth over half a million dollars so this is not such a terrible deal but I still don't think he should do any prison time at all. Nobody forced users to send him their bitcoins and it was Twitters fault that they didn't have adequate security. The only thing he did wrong in my eyes was that he violated the terms of an agreement he made when he was caught in a 2019 bitcoin theft.

He basically commited scam and therefore the sentencing is justified. I hope this sentencing should reform him so that he does not commit such crimes in the future. This should also be an eye opener for those who have committed scams in the past or are planning to commit in the future, that you cannot escape the law.

The punishment is fair in my opinion, if he returns the money that'd be even better. The effect of being imprisoned could already destroy his life aswell since it's gonna be hard for him to build his career.  hopefully it somehow scare off any hackers from doing any such criminal activities more specifically those from 1st world countries since they are more likely to get caught seeing a more strict and "real" law enforcement.

So do you think websites offering ponzi scheme or project offering unrealistic gains is not scam also? Because it's only a words and promising, they didn't forcing anyone to send him Bitcoin too. You're wrong then.

Hacking someone twitter accounts is already violations, why the hell someone need to use someone account when you can use your personal account? As you know many peoples is trusting official account, that's why some user send their Bitcoin to them without worried... because they're believing.

If he will not return the money, he will more than likely use those stolen funds after he gets out. Who knows, he already transferred it to a secure place where he will be the only one who can get access to.


Yes, these MLM or ponzi schemes also need to be punished. However, if there will be no individuals or groups that will push thru the case, they can just run away freely. This is why most ponzi schemes can get away because very few individuals can dedicate their resources of running after to these scammers.

Justice is said to have been served but the dact remains that soial media account owners should always ensure that their accounts are  safe at all time as the security of their account is entirely their own responsibility. What if it had happened from another region where there is limited resources to fish out the culprits, does it mean the ahacker(s) would have walked away with people's money and still continue with their business. We should enure we all take security personal.

I don't think so, I assume that you haven't seen the penal system in US, most first offenders that got out of jail has a high chance that they will become repeat offender. US prison system is not made to reform the criminals but to only make them more angry and smart. Only way for him to not become a repeat offender is if the kid was to get a job that specializes in coding because that skill can be used for something good, maybe the Federal government might take in this kid if he can prove his skills.

In my opinion, 3 years is not small considering that he is only 18 years old. The news also says he may spend part of his sentence in a training camp, a special program of the US justice system that relies on military techniques and strict discipline to rehabilitate offenders.

And usually the practice in such cases in the United States is that after the sentence, hackers hire them as cyber security consultants in public or private institutions (provided they are really good hackers).

I just really hope Twitter learnt it lesson and instead of caring about its political views or politics as a whole, hire some staff that actually know what they're doing and implement more security measures so incidents like that never happens again, even though I really doubt that.

In addition to that they're highly understaffed and most of its technical support is being maintained by bots which are less than useless when it comes to specific issues that are not that common, and when they send your case to one of the human supports it could take up to week/s for you to get a proper answer which is not optimal to say the least, specially for a social platform with ~187 million users.

I believe 3 years inside is too small for a high profile hack of such magnitude. He robbed a lot of people through that hacked all across the world. Although I believe the judge should tamper judgement with mercies because he pleaded guilty and showed remorse, but I don't expect it to be that lenient.

How much he earned for this 3 years? This was pretty interesting event

the punishment was worth it, not too bad either. it is only to be responsible for the actions he did that harm many parties. With a 3-year sentence that will certainly deter him, but people like Graham Ivan Clark must be instructed and recruited so that his abilities can be developed and applied to more positive activities or jobs. This teenager has great potential if directed properly.

Too short sentence, but will he be reformed? After serving his sentence he might be hired immediately by companies working underground or surveillance. He might also encourage new hackers to focus on hacking high profile accounts because now they knew that his sentence is not too long.

Such criminals like this is usually transformed to be a governmental hacker, looter, and other sort of illegal governmental usage, criminal is a very hard effect of life to fight against, it takes a great time for someone to stop been a criminal and a scammer, serving in jail for 3 years might not change anything from him, so he may rather work for government or go home prepare for more talent on how to scam intelligently without been caught next time.

Age is not a measure if you are doing anything criminal and we are seeing these sort of criminal activities is fairly because they are not getting a big punishment for committing these crimes and if i remember many lost their money during these hacks. He needs to have a reality check if he was a misguided teen if not these spoiled brats will not learn their lesson.

I do not care about hacking but once people start loosing money then it is a different shit altogether.

He pleaded guilty which makes his sentence lower, if he didn't it could be more than 3 years + the 3 years probation. They understood about losing money there. They weren't talking about the coins to be returned though so its not really sure if its going to be given back but its probably not in the hands of this kid anymore, probably to the authorities. The goal is to limit more damages which this kid's life could turn upside down. 3 years is actually very long for a freeman to be put in jail, a day is like an eternity.

I think it is good that he has been given a 3 year prison for his evil act. This will also stop other hackers from doing such things as they know that if they got caught they will not be spared and treaded harshly. I would have been more better if he was asked to give certain amount of money also as a plenty.

With crypto scams only being given at most 3 years, nobody's going to be scared of the repercussions of this hack. Not to mention the fact that the case they are suspected of is already almost 2 years old. Justice seems to be a bit complacent on things she does not have an idea of. A penalty could be imposed, plus add more years on his prison sentence if found guilty. That should teach guys like him a lesson.

Oh yeah, I remember that incidence vividly

I think he got away with a slap on the wrist for such a heinous crime against humanity. Anything above 10 years in the penitentiary should've been well deserved. They sentencing was a lenient one. Hackers are scammers who are also "armed" robbers turned killers. Sometimes, when one's livelihood is hacked into, it could be hacking into the only thing that keeps one alive. It could be taking away one's pension, you know. This is why I liken hackers and scammers as murderers. They too, deserve no mercy.

3 years wasn't Enough for His actions , 3 years imprisonment when hacking even a Former president ? this must be a criminal case as disrespect to the people they are hacking .
If i were to decide? even 10 years is not enough for hackers , They must be sentenced at least 20 years and uo,
So no one will follow their Path and Hacking will eventually lessen and lessen and they in future will totally Gone because of the strict rules and sentenced .

The fact that he admits guilty makes him reduce the 3 years in prison, I think that is already enough for him to change and never do once again the things that he has done, he has the potential because of the knowledge he has so I think after being in jail, there would be a lot of company that would hire him as a security specialist. But the thing about here is that 3 years in prison wouldn't scare other criminals to stop what they are doing, they might think that it is not that too long if they got caught.

There should be a proper law for this and the consequences should be defined. When people know that they will get a life time prison they will not try to do these shameful cheap acts. Many times these hackers get away because no one is able to trace them but lucky this time we know the person who did this.

LOL.. the courts will not agree to that. You want to impose life term for twitter hacks? That would make the quantum of punishment more severe than the case with child rape or revenge porn. I guess 3 years is the optimal term in this case. Being in the prison is not a good experience, be it for 3 days or 3 years. And hopefully this 3-year term will be enough to deter and discourage other criminals, who are planning to execute such crimes in the future.