Twitter hack: Suspected US teen mastermind pleads 'not guilty'

On August 4, the Florida teen accused of being the mastermind behind the mid-July cyberattack that involved hacking the verified VVIP account including former US President Barack Obama and presidential candidate Joe Biden among others pleaded ‘not guilty’. According to a news agency report, Graham Clark, 17, is charged with 17 counts of communications fraud for plotting schemes to gain access into prominent US politicians and celebrities accounts. Additionally, the Florida mastermind hacker is charged with 11 counts of fraudulent use of personal information and one count for the fraudulent act for over $5,000, and unlawful access into the electronic device.  

While the hearing was conducted on August 4 via Zoom video conferencing in Tampa, Florida, Clark was ordered to remain in Hillsborough County Jail after he was arrested last week, according to US media reports. Further, his bail has been set at $725,000, reports cited the court records. Hillsborough State Attorney's Office is reportedly prosecuting Clark as “adult”. The other two accused are Mason Sheppard, 19, of Bognor Regis, UK, and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando who is charged in California federal court in one of the most high-profile security breaches in history.  

There is a false belief within the criminal hacker community that attacks like the Twitter hack can be perpetrated anonymously and without consequence, AP quoted US Attorney David L Anderson for the Northern District of California.

Today's charging announcement demonstrates that the elation of nefarious hacking into a secure environment for fun or profit will be short-lived, he added.

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FBI and the US Department of Justice, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren have also been reportedly involved in the trial of the Florida teen. Warren’s office explained that it was prosecuting Clark in Florida state court as the Florida law allowed minors to be charged as adults in financial fraud cases, a news agency report confirmed.  

This defendant lives here in Tampa, he committed the crime here, and he'll be prosecuted here," Warren said, in a news agency report. 

Hackers targeted 130 accounts

In an official statement on its website, Twitter said that hackers targeted 130 accounts and managed to roll a bitcoin scam from at least 45 accounts. Further, the cyber attackers access the direct message inbox of 36 and managed to download the Twitter data from at least 7 VVIP accounts. In the security breach, scammers sent out tweets on July 15 from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg, and several other tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West’s accounts were also hacked. The fraudulent tweets promised to send $2,000 for every $1,000 sent to a Bitcoin wallet address.

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(With Inputs from AP)