How Twitter Bitcoin Hack Mastermind Got Caught

Story of Twitter-Hack Mastermind

The Federal agents arrested a 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark accusing him of being the mastermind of the Twitter Bitcoin hack last month. He tricked the twitter employees by convincing them that he is an employee of Twitter and gaining access to sensitive tools.

However, his arrest has raised questions on how a young boy below the age of 20 could breach the security of such a widely-used platform. Moreover, many people recommended offering him a job in the government agency to utilize his skills in the proper way.

Clark, in this case, is charged as an adult with 30 felonies including his other two partners. As per some reports, Clark has not returned any of the stolen Bitcoins yet but has attempted to move them to different accounts.

However, the case is now handled by Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren as referred by the Justice Department. This is because ‘Florida law allows minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases such as this when appropriate.”

As per Twitter’s claim, Hacker used social engineering techniques to gain access to almost 130 high profile Twitter accounts from Twitter employees. He then used 45 accounts to solicit money in Bitcoin from the people. That being said, Court documents reveal that almost 415 payments were sent to the hacker’s wallet address. 

Clark’s Partners Left Identity Signs 

As Coinpedia reported earlier that 2 people were working for the mastermind. Later they refused to continue on exploring that the high-profile accounts were being targeted.

These two people have been identified as Mason John Sheppard(19) from the United Kingdom and Nima Fazeli(22) from Orlando. They operated under the screen names, Chaewon and Rolex. Clark along with Nima and Fazeli is currently in custody.

As per the report, Mason’s identity was a hassle-free task as the liable used his personal driving license to verify his identity at Binance and Coinbase exchange.

Moreover, the fraudulent bitcoins transaction from his account was cited by one of the federal agents. Another partner of Clark, Nima too had verified his identity using a driving license with Coinbase.

Mason is presently serving five years of imprisonment with a fine of $250,000 on charges of computer intrusion. Whereas Nima was charged with computer intrusion, wire fraud conspiracy, and money laundering. This accounts for 20-year imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.

The Attack could have more worst outcomes

The astonishing fact of a young millennial broking down the security layers of a platform used by every person in almost all sectors witnessed by the whole world.

Hence the attack could have gone even worse as politicians, big businessmen and celebrities use Twitter.

As state attorney Warren said, this hack could have had a major impact with millions and billions of money stolen. The financial market within America and across the globe also could have destabilized.

With access to accounts of powerful politicians, Clark could have undermined politics as well as international diplomacy. 

“This is not a game, these are serious crimes with serious consequences and if you think you can rip people off online and get away with it, you’ll be in for a rude awakening, a rude awakening that comes in the form of a 6amknock on your door from federal agents.” he cautioned.