A British man was sentenced to 5 years in jail for his involvement in a social media hack that included hijacking Twitter accounts of prime US political and enterprise leaders, and for cyberstalking and threatening a number of people.
Joseph James O’Connor, 24, pleaded responsible in New York final month to collaborating in quite a few on-line schemes, together with a July 2020 hack of Twitter, which led to the impersonation of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and others to promote a Bitcoin scheme. The responsible plea got here after O’Connor, recognized on-line as “PlugwalkJoe,” was extradited from Spain on April 26.
“I’m ashamed to be right here,” O’Connor instructed US District Decide Jed Rakoff in his sentencing listening to in Manhattan Friday. “I am sorry to all of the victims of my crimes. I am right here as a result of I did silly and shameful issues.”
“I’ll by no means break the legislation once more,” O’Connor stated. “I need to reside a life with that means, not the idiotic, empty, hermit life I used to be dwelling.”
Rakoff stated he thought-about O’Connor’s comparatively younger age and autism in reaching the sentence. O’Connor had requested the court docket to present him no extra time behind bars than the 23 months he had already served earlier than being sentenced. He’ll be credited with that point, the decide stated. Prosecutors argued for seven years.
“O’Connor used his refined technological talents for malicious functions — conducting a posh SIM swap assault to steal giant quantities of cryptocurrency, hacking Twitter, conducting pc intrusions to take over social media accounts, and even cyberstalking two victims, together with a minor sufferer,” Manhattan US Legal professional Damian Williams stated in a press release on the time of O’Connor’s responsible plea.
O’Connor additionally pleaded responsible to stealing $794,012.64 from a Manhattan-based cryptocurrency firm by SIM swapping a few of its executives. He has agreed to forfeit that quantity.
As well as, he admitted “swatting” a 16-year outdated lady in June and July 2020, calling native police and claiming she was planning to shoot folks at what he thought was her deal with. O’Connor additionally despatched related messages to a highschool, a restaurant and a sheriff’s division. The following month he referred to as a number of members of the sufferer’s household and threatened to kill them.
