Twitter Hacker Sentenced To 5 Years In Prison For 2020 Breach

A US federal court has handed a five-year prison sentence to Joseph James O'Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, for his involvement in the high-profile 2020 Twitter hack.

O'Connor, aged 24, pleaded guilty to a series of cybercrimes, including carrying out a SIM-swapping attack targeting a TikTok account with millions of followers. The hack resulted in unauthorised access to the backend of Twitter, compromising the accounts of prominent individuals such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Barack Obama, and over 100 other notable users.

During the breach, O'Connor and his co-perpetrators managed to net approximately USD 794,000 through a crypto scam. The stolen cryptocurrency was subsequently fraudulently diverted and laundered through multiple transfers and transactions. Some of the funds were exchanged for Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services, with a portion of the stolen cryptocurrency eventually ending up in an account controlled by O'Connor.

In addition to the five-year prison term, O'Connor will face three years of supervised release upon completion of his sentence. Furthermore, he is required to forfeit the USD 794,000 that he gained through the fraudulent activities during the Twitter hack.

It is worth noting that in 2021, Graham Ivan Clark, believed to be the teenage mastermind behind the Twitter breach, pleaded guilty and received a three-year prison sentence in exchange for his plea.