Plugwalk Joe Does the Perp Walk
Summary: Joseph "PlugwalkJoe" O'Connor, a 22-year-old British citizen, was arrested and indicted on ten counts including conspiracy, computer intrusion, extortive communications, stalking and threatening communications, one day after KrebsOnSecurity linked him to the July 2020 Twitter mass-hack. The indictment alleges O'Connor took part in SIM swaps against actor Bella Thorne and social media personality Addison Rae, swatted and cyberstalked a 16-year-old girl, and called in bomb threats and swatting attacks against a California high school and airport about a week after the Twitter hack.
Key Takeaway: A footnote on Page 4 of the indictment links O'Connor to the possible swatting of a U.S. law enforcement officer, and prosecutors say his own voice is on record in calls to federal investigators and to an inmate arrested for SIM swapping - the same SIM-swap technique that bypasses SMS-based two-factor authentication on any account that allows password resets by text.
Read the original at Krebs on Security ↗
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