A Suspected Twitter #Hacker Extradition Approved by the Spanish High Court
According to reports, a court approved the extradition of an accomplice in the 2020 Twitter hack.
After confirming a suspect in the hacking of about 130 high-profile Twitter accounts, the U.S. Department of Justice requested that Joseph James O’Connor be extradited to the U.S.
Spain’s Audiencia Nacional ruled in favor of the U.S. and granted a permit to extradite the 23-year-old. The court stated that O’Connor satisfies the county’s extradition rules, however, he can make appeals against the judgment.
O’Connor has about 14 charges to face in court, including the hacking of 130 Twitter accounts. Some of the victims were high-profile individuals such as Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Elon Musk, and Kim Kardashian.
He and his accomplice leveraged the accounts to deceive many Twitter users to send money to a particular crypto address in which they extorted about $120,000. The hackers posted a tweet with these profiles explaining, “The account holder was giving back to the community, promising that for 30 minutes only, anyone who sent up to $1,000 in Bitcoin would receive double in return.”
One of the other charges against O’Connor is cryptocurrency theft and scam.
Four Twitter Hackers Identified
According to the reports, O’Connor is one of four individuals involved in the Twitter hack. The other suspects are Graham Ivan Clark and Nima Fazeli who are both residents of Florida, and Mason Sheppard, who is based in England.
According to authorities in the U.S. and U.K, they arrested Clark and Fazeli. in July 2020 while Sheppard is still under investigation,
As per O’Connor, the U.S. Department of Justice expressed that his charges are numerous, however, he doesn’t have any charges in Spain.
Additionally, he was charged for compromising an actress’ Snapchat account. Reports have it that he tried to blackmail her by threatening to spread her nude pictures. A security blogger, Brian Krebs identified the actress as Bella Thorne, who thanked the FBI for responding to the incident.
