17-Year-Old ‘Mastermind’, 2 Others Behind the Biggest Twitter Hack Arrested

Three young individuals — 17, 19, and 22-year-old — have
reportedly been arrested for being the alleged mastermind behind
the recent Twitter hack that simultaneously targeted several
high-profile accounts as part of a massive bitcoin scam.

According to the U.S. Department of
Justice^[1], Mason Sheppard,
aka “Chaewon,” 19, from the United Kingdom, Nima Fazeli, aka
“Rolex,” 22, from Florida and an unnamed juvenile was charged this
week with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit
money laundering, and the intentional access of a protected
computer.

Florida news channel WFLA has identified a teen named
17-year-old Graham Clark of Tampa Bay also arrested this
week in connection with the Twitter hack, who probably is the
juvenile that U.S. Department of Justice mentioned in its press
release.

Graham Clark has reportedly been charged with 30 felonies of
communications and organized fraud for scamming hundreds of people
using compromised accounts.

On July 15, Twitter faced the biggest security lapse in its
history after an attacker managed to hijack nearly 130 high-profile
twitter accounts, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates,
Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett, Uber, and Apple.

The broadly targeted hack posted similarly worded messages
urging millions of followers of each profile to send money to a
specific bitcoin wallet address in return for larger payback.

“Everyone is asking me to give back, and now is the time,” a tweet
from Mr. Gates’ account said. “You send $1,000; I send you back
$2,000.”

The targeted profiles also include some popular
cryptocurrency-focused accounts, such as Bitcoin, Ripple, CoinDesk,
Gemini, Coinbase, and Binance.

The scheme helped the attackers reap more than $100,000 in Bitcoin
within just a few hours.

As suspected on the day of the attack, Twitter later admitted
that the attacker(s) compromised its employees’ accounts with
access to internal tools to gain unauthorized access to the
targeted profiles.

“There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community
that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously
and without consequence,” said U.S. Attorney Anderson.

“Today’s charging announcement demonstrates that the elation of
nefarious hacking into a secure environment for fun or profit will
be short-lived.  Criminal conduct over the Internet may feel
stealthy to the people who perpetrate it, but there is nothing
stealthy about it.  In particular, I want to say to would-be
offenders, break the law, and we will find you.”

This is a developing story and will be updated as additional
details become available.