2020 Twitter Hacker Gets 5-Year Prison Term for SIM Swapping Scheme and Crypto Theft

A federal judge recently handed down a five-year term to a British man who made around $900,000 from a complex Twitter breach and a second crypto-related SIM-swapping scheme, according to Inner City Press.
Judge Jed Rakoff stated during the sentencing in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on Friday that Joseph O’Connor’s acts had an impact on people’s lives.
O’Connor, also known online as PlugWalkJoe, orchestrated a severe Twitter attack in 2020, taking control of well-known accounts (such as CoinDesk) and using them to advertise a bitcoin giveaway fraud. He profited from the arrangement by $103,960.
However, O’Connor admitted to taking part in SIM-swapping assaults against prominent leaders in the cryptocurrency sector, which led to the theft of digital currencies valued at $794,000.
Before being captured in Spain in 2021, the hacker eluded capture for a full year. He has completed 28 months of his sentence, leaving him with just under three years to go.