US teenager, two other men arrested for Twitter hack: Justice Department
A 17-year-old Tampa teenager was arrested for being the "mastermind" behind the Twitter hack, which compromised the profiles of many prominent personalities and organizations, according to the Hillsborough State Attorney's Office.
"The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Department of Justice conducted a complex nationwide investigation, locating and apprehending the suspect in Hillsborough County," the statement said.
For all the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.
Investigators identified Florida resident Graham Ivan Clark as the "mastermind" of the cyberattack and arrested him in Tampa, Hillsborough state attorney Andrew Warren said.
"This defendant lives here in Tampa, he committed the crime here, and he'll be prosecuted here," Warren added.
The Justice Department also identified two other men who were charged in connection with the hack as Mason Sheppard, of Bognor Regis in the United Kingdom, and Nima Fazeli of Orlando, Florida.
On July 15, a wave of tweets in a hacking swept through Twitter, with over half a dozen high-profile accounts - belonging to US presidential candidate Joe Biden, billionaire Bill Gates, and rapper Kanye West, among others - used to solicit bitcoin donations.
Read more: Major Twitter accounts swept up in wave of apparent hacking, investigation underway
Posts trying to dupe people into sending the hackers Bitcoin were tweeted by the official accounts of Apple, Uber and many others, forcing Twitter to lock large numbers of accounts in damage control.
More than $100,000 worth of the virtual currency was sent to email addresses mentioned in the tweets, according to Blockchain.com, which monitors crypto transactions.
-
Twitter defends allowing Iran’s Khamenei to call for genocide while censoring Trump
Twitter is under fire after defending its decision to allow Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to call for genocide on the platform, while censoring ... World News -
Twitter: Hackers ‘manipulated’ employees to access accounts in a high-profile attack
Twitter says hackers “manipulated” some of its employees to access accounts in a high-profile attack on the social media company, including those of ... Digital -
Hackers convinced, paid Twitter employee to help them hijack accounts: Motherboard
A Twitter employee assisted hackers who took over several high-profile accounts on the social media platform on Wednesday, according to two hackers ... World News -
US officials demand answers to Twitter hacking; company has no security chief
Twitter had stepped up its search for a chief information security officer in recent weeks, two people familiar with the effort told Reuters, before ... Technology