{"id":53053,"date":"2023-06-26T08:26:42","date_gmt":"2023-06-26T12:26:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/?p=53053"},"modified":"2023-06-26T08:54:04","modified_gmt":"2023-06-26T12:54:04","slug":"plugwalkjoe-sim-switch-hacker-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/plugwalkjoe-sim-switch-hacker-sentenced-to-5-years-in-prison\/","title":{"rendered":"PlugwalkJoe, SIM Switch Hacker Sentenced to 5 Years in Prison"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joseph O'Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, received a five-year prison sentence for a SIM swap attack<\/a> in April 2019. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"PlugwalkJoe,
PlugwalkJoe, SIM switch hacker sentenced to 5 years in prison<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The attack stole approximately $794,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from a crypto exchange executive. O'Connor was initially arrested in Spain in July 2021 and was extradited to the United States on April 26, 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May, he pleaded guilty to several crimes, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and conspiracy to hack computers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York<\/a> announced the prison sentence on June 23. The court has also ordered O'Connor to serve three years of supervised release and to pay $794,012.64 in forfeiture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the SIM swap attack, O'Connor gained unauthorized access to the accounts and computer systems of the crypto exchange where the targeted executive worked by swapping their SIM cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They have not disclosed the identity of the compromised executive. O'Connor and his co-conspirators laundered the stolen cryptocurrency through various transfers and transactions, converting some of it into Bitcoin using cryptocurrency exchange services. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, some of the stolen funds ended up in an account controlled by O'Connor. Additionally, O'Connor's sentence includes charges related to the high-profile Twitter breach in July 2020. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that incident, O'Connor and his group managed to earn nearly $120,000 in illegal cryptocurrency profits. They employed social engineering techniques and SIM swapping to compromise around 130 well-known Twitter accounts<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some instances, they used compromised accounts to defraud other Twitter users or sold access to them. O'Connor also engaged in blackmail, threatening to expose private chats of a victim unless they promoted his online reputation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He further harassed and targeted a victim through swatting attacks and threats. SIM swap attacks remain a significant concern. In such attacks, perpetrators associate a victim's phone number with a SIM card they control, allowing them to hijack the victim's phone number. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can access accounts that utilize SMS-based two-factor authentication by redirecting calls and messages to their device. This tactic is commonly used to deceive followers of popular accounts into clicking phishing links that lead to cryptocurrency theft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite O'Connor's crimes occurring three years ago, SIM swap attacks continue to threaten the crypto industry. Recently, blockchain detective ZachXBT\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/g>\r\n \r\n \r\n \r\n <\/clipPath>\r\n <\/defs><\/svg><\/span><\/a> uncovered a group of scammers who targeted at least eight accounts belonging to prominent cryptocurrency figures, resulting in over $1 million in stolen funds. The scammers utilized the compromised accounts to promote phishing links.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joseph O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, received a five-year prison sentence for a SIM swap attack in April 2019. The attack stole approximately $794,000 worth of cryptocurrencies from a crypto exchange executive. O’Connor was initially arrested in Spain in July 2021 and was extradited to the United States on April 26, 2023. In May, he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":53055,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11476],"tags":[15014,15015],"class_list":["post-53053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hacks-and-scams","tag-plugwalkjoe","tag-sim-switch-hacker"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/croc_1687715199313.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/coinscreed.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}