23-Year-Old Pleads Guilty in Connection with Massive 2020 Twitter Hack

A U.K. national responsible for the 2020 Twitter hack, which compromised 130 high-profile accounts, including those of Bill Gates and Elon Musk, has pleaded guilty and could face up to 70 years in prison. 

Joseph James O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, has admitted to his involvement in cyberstalking and multiple computer hacking schemes, including the July 2020 Twitter hack. The attack involved O’Connor and his co-conspirators using social engineering techniques to obtain unauthorized access to Twitter’s backend tools and subsequently taking control of the accounts, netting them $120,000 in a few hours.

O’Connor was extradited from Spain in April after the Spanish National Court approved the U.S. Department of Justice’s request to hand over O’Connor to face 14 criminal charges in the U.S. O’Connor is one of four individuals who have been charged with carrying out the Twitter hack. Mason Sheppard has not been arrested, Nima Fazeli and Graham Ivan Clark were arrested in the same month, and Clark was awarded a three-year jail term in March 2021 after pleading guilty to 30 felony charges.

Aside from the Twitter incident, O’Connor has been charged with computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts, as well as stalking a juvenile victim online. O’Connor and his co-conspirators have also been accused of employing SIM swapping techniques to siphon cryptocurrency worth $794,000 from a New York City-based crypto company between March and May 2019.

O’Connor has agreed to forfeit about $794,000 in stolen funds and is scheduled to be sentenced on June 23. The charges carry a total maximum penalty of over 70 years in prison. SIM swapping is an increasingly popular technique used by cybercriminals to gain access to accounts and data. To protect yourself from SIM swapping attacks, be cautious when sharing personal information online, use strong passwords, and enable two-factor authentication on all of your accounts.