17-Year-Old Accused of Being Mastermind in Devastating Twitter Hack

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has recently focused on another suspect, who is only 17 years old, who may be responsible for hacking the social media platform Twitter in July that compromised several dozens of high-profile accounts.

17-year-old mastermind

Florida officials said that 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark is being accused of playing the mastermind behind the social media hack that targetted the accounts of politicians and business leaders, including former United States President Barack Obama and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

According to Fox News, the alleged scammers powered through the accounts' security and sent out tweets that made it seem like the wealthy individuals were asking for donations to be sent through bitcoin. However, the ruse was so that they could amass their own fortune where they took home more than $100,000.

Authorities believe that the 17-year-old suspect played a vital role in the attack compared to his associates. FBI agents allegedly searched Clark's residence in Massachusetts, where his parents also lived on Tuesday. The case could potentially be transferred over to Massachusetts authorities to who has the power to charge minors as adults.

On July 31, authorities also charged two other individuals concerning the crime; 22-year-old Nima Fazeli and 19-year-old Mason Sheppard. The FBI said their investigation was still ongoing and that so far, only the three suspects have been charged.

A special agent in charge with the FBI, John Bennett, said that while investigations into cyberattacks could take years, investigators have successfully discovered the three hackers and brought them into custody in only a few weeks.

A spokeswoman for the bureau revealed that while only three suspects have been charged so far, the continuous investigations could result in more individuals being arrested and charged, as reported by The New York Times.

Also Read: Twitter Accounts Get Massive Cyber-Breach for Cryptocurrency Fraud Including Musk, Gates, Obama

Specialized account hackers

Cybersecurity experts said that the three suspects were part of a loose-knit community of hackers who specialize in taking over accounts. The criminals use a method known as SIM-swapping and are known to frequently target telecom companies to compromise the phone numbers of their victims and steal their login credentials.

The three hackers focused on employees of the social media platform Twitter. They got hold of their account credentials, giving them access to the site's internal system and gaining the power to reset passwords of nearly all of the platform's users. Some accounts, including US President Donald Trump's, have an extra security layer to prevent hacking attempts.

The chief research officer of the security firm Unit 221B, Allison Nixon, said that the suspects were trained to be efficient at what they do and conduct their attack creatively using unconventional methods.

Usually, hackers set their sights on financial fraud, but the recent compromise of political figures could attract new and more wicked customers, said Nixon.

Nixon said that one thing that worries her is that these criminals will have more opportunities to deal with nefarious customers with the added capability of breaching high-profile political accounts.

Twitter officials released a statement thanking law enforcement in their swift and decisive actions and said it would be willing to continue cooperation with local authorities to further the investigations.