"Biden and Musk Also Targeted" ... Arrest of 20-Year-Old British Man in 'Worst Twitter Hacking' Case

Arrested by Local Authorities in Spain... Likely to be Extradited to the US
Over 130 Accounts Hacked Including Obama, Gates, Buffett, Bezos
Impersonated Account Owners to Steal 120 Million Won in Bitcoin

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] A man in his 20s from the UK who hacked the Twitter accounts of more than 100 celebrities, including US President Joe Biden and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, was arrested in Spain.

According to CNBC on the 21st (local time), the US Department of Justice announced that Joseph O'Connor, a 22-year-old British man who caused a large-scale hacking incident last year, was arrested by local authorities in Spain.

The arrest of O'Connor by Spanish police was made following a joint investigation request from the US Department of Justice. Spanish police are expected to extradite O'Connor to the US under the criminal extradition treaty with the United States.

O'Connor, who was indicted in the US Federal Court in California, is accused of hacking the Twitter accounts of about 130 celebrities on July 15 last year.

Among the celebrity accounts hacked by O'Connor at the time were former US President Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway known as the "Oracle of Investing," Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In addition, official accounts of major IT companies such as Apple and Uber were also hacked.

O'Connor is known to have impersonated the owners of these accounts to steal Bitcoin. At the time, O'Connor posted messages on the hacked accounts stating, "If you deposit Bitcoin, we will return double," along with the account number to which Bitcoin should be sent.

Some Twitter users, mistakenly believing that the account owners had posted such messages, actually sent Bitcoin to O'Connor, who reportedly stole Bitcoin worth about $100,000 (approximately 115 million KRW).

Earlier, a 17-year-old American teenager who participated in the hacking with O'Connor was also arrested by US authorities last year and has been brought to trial.

Rachel Tobak, CEO of cybersecurity company SocialProof Security, described the hacking incident as "the largest hack in Twitter's history." She added, "It is fortunate that the criminals were only after Bitcoin and not aiming to cause destruction and chaos."

According to the US prosecution, O'Connor is currently facing charges including personal information theft, fraud, cyberstalking of minors, and illegal intrusion into TikTok accounts.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.