17yo Florida Teen Charged As 'Mastermind' Of Massive Twitter Hack

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Florida prosecutors have charged a teenager with being the "mastermind" of a hack that targeted some of Twitter's best-known accounts and, prosecutors say, scammed more than $100,000 in Bitcoin from duped users.

Two other people were also charged by federal prosecutors for their alleged involvement in the July 15 hack, which involved the accounts of the social media network's richest and most famous users, including former President Barack Obama, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and rapper Kanye West.

Federal agents arrested Graham Ivan Clark, a 17-year-old Tampa resident, on Friday morning after a nationwide investigation by the FBI and Department of Justice, according to the state attorney's office in Hillsborough County, Florida. He is facing 30 felony charges. (NPR is naming Clark because he is being charged under Florida state law as an adult.)

"Clark hacked into the Twitter accounts of famous people and celebrities, but they were not the primary victims. This 'Bit-Con' was designed to defraud money from regular Americans from across the country and here in Florida," Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren said at a press conference on Friday.

The Twitter profiles were used to post messages asking their millions of followers to send Bitcoin to accounts associated with Clark. The messages promised the senders that their payments would be doubled — which never happened. Clark also sold access to some of the accounts, Warren said.

Clark "reaped over $100,000 in Bitcoin in just one day," Warren said. "He's a 17-year-old kid who apparently just graduated high school, but make no mistake: this was not an ordinary 17-year-old. This was a highly sophisticated attack on a magnitude not seen before."

Clark faces 17 counts of communications fraud, one count of organized fraud, one count of fraudulent use of personal information with over $100,000 or 30 or more victims, 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information, and one count of accusing a computer or electronic device without authority.

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/31/897815039/florida-teen-charged-as-mastermind-of-massive-twitter-hack

[BlueTsunami2018]

1. I would say the government should hire him.

To counter foreign cyber attacks but knowing this government, they’d use him against us.

[samnsara]

2. someone will hire him..its like he was auditioning..

[Initech]

4. That's what happened in Catch Me If You Can.

The guy was so good at committing check fraud that he was actually hired by the FBI as a consultant on check fraud. Maybe the same can happen here!

[LonePirate]

3. The more I read about this, the more I call bullshit on a 17 yo from Tampa being the one behind this