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- O’Connor was arrested in Spain in July 2021.
- The hacker’s conviction encompassed his involvement in the significant Twitter breach in July 2020.
Joseph O’Connor, known as “PlugwalkJoe,” received a five-year prison sentence in the United States for his involvement in a SIM swap attack on a cryptocurrency exchange executive in April 2019, which led to the theft of $794,000 in cryptocurrencies.
O’Connor was arrested in Spain in July 2021 and was subsequently extradited back to the United States on April 26, 2023. He pleaded guilty in May to multiple charges, including conspiracy to commit computer intrusions, wire fraud, and money laundering.
The United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York acknowledged the prison sentence in a statement issued on June 23.
The statement indicates:
“In addition to the prison sentence, O’Connor was sentenced to three years of supervised release. O’Connor was also ordered to forfeit $794,012.64.”
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O’Connor gained unauthorized access to accounts and computer systems belonging to the exchange where the targeted crypto executive was employed after performing a SIM swap with the unidentified executive.
Additionally, O’Connor’s conviction included his participation in the major Twitter breach in July 2020, which earned him and his associates nearly $120,000 in cryptocurrency.
Approximately 130 prominent Twitter accounts, along with two major profiles on TikTok and Snapchat, were compromised after the hackers employed a mix of “social engineering techniques” and SIM-swapping tactics.
At times, the conspirators took control of accounts and used them to perpetrate scams against unsuspecting Twitter users or even sold the accounts to others. O’Connor’s intention in this method was to extort the Snapchat user into promoting his or her online persona by threatening to disclose private messages.
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