The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) arrested on Thursday an Alabama man who’s allegedly behind the hacking of the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee (SEC)’s account on social media platform X final January.
The US Division of Justice says Eric Council Jr. is accused of conspiring with others to take unauthorized management of SEC’s X account and fraudulently utilizing SEC chair Gary Gensler’s identify to prematurely announce the approval of Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF).
In keeping with X, the regulator didn’t arrange multi-factor authentication (MFA) for its profile.
The pretend announcement prompted the worth 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.
Council is alleged to have carried out the hack via an unauthorized Subscriber Id Module (SIM) swap, which entails fraudulently inducing a cellphone service to reassign one other individual’s contact quantity to a SIM card managed by the unhealthy actor.
The accused allegedly used the stolen id of an individual who had entry to SEC’s X account to take over that individual’s cellphone quantity and entry the social media accounts linked to the cellphone quantity, enabling the untimely put up about Bitcoin ETFs.
Says FBI Felony Investigative Division Assistant Director Chad Yarbrough,
“The defendant allegedly deceived the general public by impersonating the sufferer and making fraudulent statements on behalf of the SEC. The FBI and our companions will proceed to research and maintain accountable those that try to govern monetary markets for their very own acquire.”
Council is charged with one depend of conspiracy to commit aggravated id theft and entry system fraud. He faces as much as 5 years of jail time.
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