Twitter hack: Police arrest suspects in Florida

Rapid success with the Twitter hack: Investigators have identified three suspects who are supposed to be responsible for the big hack of the microblogging service in July. A 17-year-old was arrested in Tampa, Florida.

According to the prosecutors, this is the main culprit. The prosecutor accuses him of organized fraud, the fraudulent use of personal data and unauthorized access to computers. There are a total of 30 charges against him.

There are two other suspects

The other two suspects are a 19-year-old Brit and a 22-year-old from Florida. The former is accused of telecommunications fraud, money laundering and unauthorized access to protected computers, the latter aid for computer intrusion. It is unclear whether the two were also arrested.

If convicted, all three must face prison terms, some of them very long. The Florida state attorney’s office is planning to prosecute the 17-year-old under state law, not federal law. In Florida, he can be treated like an adult, which can affect the sentence.

“There is a misconception in the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be carried out anonymously and without consequences.”, said California Attorney David Anderson. The rapid success of the investigation, however, shows that the exhilaration about penetrating a secure system, be it for fun or for greed for profit, will only be short-lived.

Twitter appreciates the success of the investigation

Twitter was pleased with the success of the investigation:“We appreciate the prompt action by law enforcement agencies on this investigation and will continue to cooperate as the case progresses.”, commented the company’s communications team and promised to provide further information on the matter.

The attack in mid-July affected 130 user accounts and 45 were taken over. These included the accounts of well-known personalities such as former US President Barack Obama, US presidential candidate Joe Biden, Tesla boss Elon Musk, Amazon boss Jeff Bezos, as well as some corporate accounts such as Apple and Uber.

Via the hacked accounts, the perpetrators called on Bitcoins to be deposited into an account. For this, the double amount will be refunded. According to the investigators, around 400 transfers were made. The perpetrators are said to have received over $ 100,000.

According to Twitter, the perpetrators contacted Twitter employees directly. They got them on the phone to give them access to Twitter systems. This type of social engineering is considered a major weak point for technical systems.

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