70 years in prison for Twitter hack?

A UK national, Joseph James O’Connor, has pleaded guilty to his involvement in the July 2020 Twitter hack that targeted numerous high-profile accounts and defrauded users of the platform. O’Connor and his co-conspirators seized control of 130 Twitter accounts, including those belonging to Barack Obama, Bill Gates, and Elon Musk, to perpetrate a cryptocurrency scam that netted them $120,000. The attack was made possible by using social engineering techniques to obtain unauthorized access to backend tools used by Twitter. O’Connor has also been charged with computer intrusions related to takeovers of TikTok and Snapchat user accounts and sim swapping attacks against victims. The defendant has agreed to forfeit about $794,000 in stolen funds and faces a maximum penalty of over 70 years in prison.