Joseph James O’Connor, one of the hackers responsible for the Twitter hack of 2020, was sentenced to five years in prison on Friday.
O’Connor, 24, pleaded guilty in May to four counts of computer hacking, wire fraud, and cyberstalking. He also agreed to forfeit at least $794,000 to the victims of his crimes.
O’Connor, a British citizen, was extradited from Spain to the United States earlier this year and has been in custody since.
In court, Judge Jed S. Rakoff said O’Connor will likely serve about half of his sentence, after spending more than two years in pre-trial custody.
O’Connor faced a maximum sentence of 77 years in prison, but prosecutors had asked for at least seven years.
In court, O’Connor said his crimes were “stupid and pointless” and apologized to his victims. He also asked the judge for leniency.
Prosecutors said O’Connor used his “sophisticated technological abilities for malicious purposes” in the Twitter hack. They said he conducted a complex SIM swap attack to steal large amounts of cryptocurrency, hacked Twitter, and conducted computer intrusions to take over social media accounts.
O’Connor was part of a group that broke into dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts, including those of Apple, Binance, Bill Gates, Joe Biden, and Elon Musk. The group used the accounts to spread cryptocurrency get-rich-quick scams.
O’Connor used phone-based social engineering techniques to trick Twitter employees into granting the group access to Twitter’s network. One of the other hackers convicted in the Twitter hack, Graham Ivan Clark, used access to Twitter’s network to abuse an internal admin tool to hijack and reassign Twitter user accounts.
O’Connor’s sentence is a significant victory for the Justice Department, which has been cracking down on hackers who target social media platforms. The sentence sends a message that those who commit these crimes will be held accountable.
Here are some additional details about the case:
- The Twitter hack was one of the most high-profile cyberattacks in recent history.
- The hackers were able to take control of dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts and post tweets that promoted cryptocurrency scams.
- The hack caused significant financial losses to the victims.
- O’Connor is the second hacker to be sentenced in the case. Graham Ivan Clark was sentenced to three years in prison in January 2023.
