Hacker arrested for the fake SEC tweet that caused a Bitcoin price spike

1 month ago 20

The FBI has arrested an Alabama man who is accused of hacking the Securities and Exchange Commission’s X relationship successful January. The indictment (PDF) alleges that 25-year-old Eric Council Jr. worked with co-conspirators to take power of the account and station a fake connection from SEC Chair Gary Gensler astir Bitcoin ETFs that caused the terms of Bitcoin to leap by much than $1,000 momentarily.

To transportation retired this scheme, Council is accused of creating a fake ID utilizing the accusation belonging to the idiosyncratic successful power of the SEC’s X account. He past allegedly tricked AT&T into providing a SIM paper with the victim’s telephone fig and instal it into a caller iPhone helium purchased. Finally, Council was capable to summation power of the SEC’s relationship utilizing betterment authentication codes sent to the number, and aboriginal instrumentality the iPhone to the Apple Store wherever he’d bought it.

Investigators besides recovered Council made immoderate questionable searches from his idiosyncratic computer:

He aboriginal conducted net searches for “SECGOV hack,” “telegram sim swap,” “how tin I cognize for definite if I americium being investigated by the FBI,” and “What are the signs that you are nether probe by instrumentality enforcement oregon the FBI adjacent if you person not been contacted by them.”

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