I’ve seen multiple sources that are reporting that a 17-year-old teenager has now been arrested on July 31, 2020 in connection with the massive attack that took control of multiple high profile accounts to send out a bitcoin scam. Florida law, according to a CNN article, allows for the prosecution of minors as adults in certain circumstances.
Steve Gibson, the host of Security Now, sent out two links. The CNN article, Herbie, a past contributer to this podcast, was responsible for sending me.
Steve Asks on a retweet of Tech Crunch,
“The Twitter Hacker: A 17-year old minor? ”
Somehow this doesn’t surprise me one bit anymore.
According to Tech Crunch’s coverage, the teenager who was not named, will be charged in 30 different charges.
The state attorney’s office said that the teen was arrested earlier today after an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department
of Justice, and that they will be tried as an adult. They face charges including one count of organized fraud (over $50,000) and 17 counts of communications
fraud (over $300).
Twitter has been transparent in the case to date, and I feel that it was an honest mistake. Two other people are named and have been arrested. One was based in the United Kingdom, the other, in Florida. The Florida man will be tried here in California.
According to a Tampa news source Steve also retweeted, the teenager is being charged with the following:
- • Organized fraud of over $50,000
- • 17 counts of communications fraud of over $300
- • Fraudulent use of personal information of over $100,000 or 30 or more victims
- • 10 counts of fraudulent use of personal information
- • Access to computer or electronic device without authority, scheme to defraud
In all of the articles, if I haven’t mentioned it already, the teen is being charged with 30 felony charges.
Also, the articles may say things a little bit differently, but all have the same type of information.
One of the articles talks about the two adults and what they’re being charged with.
Further Reading
The following sources were either provided to me, or retweeted. They all pretty much say the same thing, read the one that you’d like to read. They say things a bit differently, and one may have more than another. Feel free to check them out.
- Florida teen arrested in Twitter hack that hit Biden and Obama CNN
- Florida teen accused of being ‘mastermind’ behind celebrity Twitter hack Tech Crunch
- Tampa 17-year-old was mastermind behind hack on Twitter in July, Hillsborough State Attorney says ABC Action News, Tampa FL
There may be other sources I’m not aware of, but if they have more than what I have here, I’ll be sure to blog again.