Joseph O’Connor, a British hacker who operated beneath the pseudonym PlugwalkJoe, has been given a five-year jail sentence in the USA. His conviction stems from his involvement in a SIM swap assault concentrating on a high-profile cryptocurrency trade government in April 2019, ensuing within the theft of digital property valued at roughly $794,000.
Having initially been apprehended in Spain in July 2021, PlugwalkJoe was extradited to the U.S. on April 26, 2023, to face justice. Demonstrating a willingness to cooperate with authorities, he entered a responsible plea in Could.
For extra clarification, a SIM swap hack is a type of cyber assault the place hackers fraudulently achieve management of a sufferer’s telephone quantity by tricking the cell provider. By doing so, they’ll bypass two-factor authentication and achieve entry to the sufferer’s delicate data, equivalent to monetary accounts.
PlugwalkJoe: Sentencing And Legal Actions
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace of the Southern District of New York emphasised the severity of the jail sentence in an official assertion launched on June 23.
Except for the imprisonment, PlugwalkJoe was additionally subjected to 3 years of supervised launch as a part of his sentencing. Moreover, in line with the assertion supplied, he was instructed to make a considerable forfeiture cost amounting to $794,000.
Though the identification of the focused cryptocurrency government stays undisclosed, O’Connor efficiently executed a SIM swap on this particular person.
This illicit maneuver allowed O’Connor to achieve unauthorized entry into varied accounts and laptop programs related to the cryptocurrency trade the place the chief was employed.
The assertion learn:
“Following the illicit acquisition of the stolen cryptocurrency, O’Connor and his accomplices engaged in a sequence of misleading practices to launder the funds. Via a large number of transfers and transactions, they intentionally obscured the origins of the illicitly obtained digital property. Moreover, a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency was transformed into Bitcoin by leveraging cryptocurrency trade companies. This covert conversion course of allowed them to additional obfuscate the path of the misappropriated funds.”
Intricate Cyber Strategies Unveiled
In line with the assertion, a big fraction of the stolen cryptocurrency was traced again to a cryptocurrency trade account beneath O’Connor’s management. This revelation additional solidifies his direct involvement in illicit actions.
Along with his involvement within the cryptocurrency theft, O’Connor’s sentence encompasses his participation within the Twitter hack in July 2020. Throughout this incident, O’Connor and his workforce accrued roughly $120,000 in illicit cryptocurrency positive factors.
The assertion highlights how PlugwalkJoe and his co-conspirators leveraged their management over the compromised Twitter accounts. They engaged in varied fraudulent actions, together with schemes to defraud others and promoting entry to the hacked accounts to events.
O’Connor’s involvement within the scheme prolonged past digital manipulation. He tried to blackmail a sufferer on Snapchat by threatening to show non-public messages except they made posts selling PlugwalkJoe’s on-line persona.
Moreover, O’Connor resorted to stalking and threatening one other particular person, orchestrating swatting assaults by falsely reporting emergencies to authorities and concentrating on the sufferer.
Featured picture from Twitter, chart from TradingView.com