An Alabama man has pled responsible to hacking the U.S. Securities and Change Fee’s (SEC) X account final 12 months and faces as much as 5 years in jail.
In January 2024, Eric Council Jr., 25, conspired with others to commandeer the SEC’s X account and prematurely announce the approval of spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded funds (ETF) within the US, in accordance with the Division of Justice (DOJ).
The pretend ETF announcement induced the value of Bitcoin to extend by greater than $1,000 after which drop by greater than $2,000 after the SEC regained management of its X account and declared the assertion to be unauthorized and the results of a safety breach. The regulator legitimately greenlit spot Bitcoin ETFs quickly after the safety incident.
The DOJ alleges Council carried out the hack by means of an unauthorized SIM swap, which entails fraudulently persuading a cellphone service to reassign one other particular person’s contact quantity to a SIM card managed by a nasty actor.
Council was paid in Bitcoin to make use of the stolen identification of an individual who had entry to the SEC’s X account, after which the DOJ alleges that his co-conspirators made the fraudulent put up.
The Alabama man pled responsible to conspiracy to commit aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud and is scheduled to be sentenced in Might. He faces as much as 5 years in jail.
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