AMERICAN TEENAGER CHARGED AS ‘MASTERMIND’ IN EPIC TWITTER HACK

SAN FRANCISCO: Criminal charges were filed on Friday against the suspected teenage mastermind of an epic Twitter hack and two others who allegedly helped hijack celebrity accounts to swindle people out of more than $100,000 in a cryptocurrency scheme.

Prosecutors in Florida said they filed 30 felony counts against a 17-year-old resident of the state identified as the “mastermind” of the cyberattack. He was arrested in Tampa, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said.

Separately, the US Attorney’s Office in San Francisco announced charges against three people, one of them from Britain, for roles in the midjuly cyberattack that rocked Twitter.

US officials said 19-yearold Mason “Chaewon” Sheppard of Britain along with Nima Fazeli, 22, of Florida face criminal charges in the case.

Details about the third individual were not released by US officials because he is a minor, but it appeared they were referring to the Florida teenager being prosecuted as an adult in that state.

The attack on Twitter involved a combination of “technical breaches and social engineering” that let hackers hijack accounts of politicians, celebrities, and musicians, according to federal prosecutors.

FOLLOW THE MONEY The three defendants are accused of hacking Twitter accounts, creating a scam Bitcoin account, and sending out imposter tweets from hijacked account offering to double Bitcoin cryptocurrency deposits.

“This case serves as a great example of how following the money, international collaboration, and public-private partnerships can work to successfully take down a perceived anonymous criminal enterprise,” said criminal investigation special agent Kelly Jackson of the Internal Revenue Service.

The attack which Twitter said resulted from a “phone spear phishing” attack enabled hackers to take control of accounts of famous people such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and former US president Barack Obama and dupe people into sending Bitcoin.

“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here,” Warren said in a release. — AFP