Teenage hacker who hacked celebrity profiles and stole cryptocurrency to be extradited to the US

O’Connor, a British citizen who hacked Twitter and stole digital assets, has been extradited to the United States. He pleaded guilty to numerous cybercrimes, including SIM swapping, hacking social media accounts, and cyberstalking two victims, including a minor.

Having hacked the accounts of several well-known people in 2020, O’Connor used them to promote a fraudulent scheme involving the distribution of bitcoins. It later turned out that the guy had an accomplice in the United States. In total, the fraudsters managed to accumulate about 11.3 BTC ($ 103,960 at the time).

The Briton was arrested in March 2021. He was tried as a juvenile offender, as he was only 17 years old at the time of the crime. His accomplice, 23-year-old Florida resident Graham Clark, in addition to participating in the hacking of Twitter accounts, also pleaded guilty to cyberattacks targeting major players in the crypto industry. In total, Clark caused $ 794,000 in losses.

It is worth noting that this is not the first high-profile case of young hackers being behind cyber hacking and cryptocurrency theft. Earlier, we told you about Jose Luis Huertas (known as Alcaseca, Mango, or Chimichuri), a 19-year-old teenager who was included in the list of the most dangerous hackers in Europe.

A few weeks ago, the United States proposed to deprive cryptocurrencies of anonymity in order to protect the world from cyberattacks. «…It is important for the cryptocurrency industry to address the problem that makes crypto assets so attractive for illegal activities,» said Christy Smith, Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, at the time.