Joseph O’Connor, a British hacker who operated underneath the pseudonym PlugwalkJoe, has been jailed for 5 years in america. His conviction stems from his involvement in a SIM-swapping assault concentrating on a high-profile cryptocurrency trade govt in April 2019, which resulted within the theft of roughly $794,000 price of digital property.
After first being apprehended in Spain in July 2021, PlugwalkJoe was extradited to america on April 26, 2023 to face justice. He demonstrated a willingness to cooperate with the authorities, and pleaded responsible in Could.
For extra clarification, a SIM swap hack is a type of cyber assault the place hackers fraudulently acquire management of a sufferer’s cellphone quantity by tricking the cell operator. By doing so, they will bypass two-factor authentication and acquire entry to the sufferer’s delicate data, equivalent to monetary accounts.
PlugwalkJoe: Sentencing and legal actions
The U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace for the Southern District of New York emphasised the severity of the jail sentence in an official assertion launched on June 23.
Other than the incarceration, PlugwalkJoe was additionally positioned on three years of supervised launch as a part of his sentencing. As well as, in response to the assertion offered, he was directed to make a considerable forfeiture fee of $794,000.
Though the identification of the focused cryptocurrency govt stays unknown, O’Connor carried out a SIM swap on that particular person.
This unlawful maneuver allowed O’Connor to realize unauthorized entry to numerous accounts and pc methods associated to the cryptocurrency trade the place the supervisor was employed.
The assertion learn:
“Following the unlawful acquisition of the stolen cryptocurrency, O’Connor and his co-conspirators engaged in a sequence of misleading practices to launder the funds. Via a large number of transfers and transactions, they intentionally obscured the origin of the illicit digital property. Moreover, a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency was transformed to Bitcoin by leveraging cryptocurrency trade providers. This covert conversion course of enabled them to additional obscure the path of the misused funds.”
Intricate cyber strategies unveiled
In response to the assertion, a major fraction of the stolen cryptocurrency was traced again to a cryptocurrency trade account underneath O’Connor’s management. This revelation additional strengthens his direct involvement in unlawful actions.
Along with his involvement within the cryptocurrency theft, O’Connor’s sentence consists of his participation in Twitter hack in July 2020. Throughout this incident, O’Connor and his crew amassed roughly $120,000 in illicit cryptocurrency winnings.
The assertion highlights how PlugwalkJoe and his co-conspirators exploited their management over the compromised Twitter accounts. They engaged in numerous fraudulent actions, together with schemes to defraud others and offered 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 disclose personal messages until they made posts selling PlugwalkJoe’s on-line persona.
Moreover, O’Connor resorted to stalking and threatening one other individual, orchestrating swatting assaults by falsely reporting emergencies to the authorities, and concentrating on the sufferer.
Featured picture from Twitter, chart from TradingView.com
