|
Those whose accounts were hacked included U.S. President Joe
Biden, who was then a presidential candidate; former president
Barack Obama; billionaires Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk;
singer Kanye West; and reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
Graham Ivan Clark, 18, faced fraud charges after a hack in an
alleged scam that stole more than $118,000 in Bitcoin.
Fraudulent tweets soliciting investments in the digital currency
were posted in mid-July from over 40 verified Twitter accounts.
Florida had charged the Tampa resident as an adult with 30
felonies. In August, Clark pled not guilty.
As a child, Clark found ways to trick players of the video game
Minecraft, people who knew him at the time told The New York
Times.
He moved on to selling and swapping rare social media user names
on the forum OGUsers, where he connected with other hackers who
said they participated in the Twitter breach, according to the
newspaper.
A report released in October by New York's Department of
Financial Services said that Twitter suffered from cybersecurity
shortfalls that enabled the "simple" hack attributed to the
Florida teenager to take over the accounts of some of the
world's most famous people.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Kim
Coghill)
[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|
