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.
America 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 line with X, the regulator didn’t arrange multi-factor authentication (MFA) for its profile.
The faux announcement precipitated 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.
Council is claimed to have carried out the hack by way of an unauthorized Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) swap, which includes fraudulently inducing a cellphone service to reassign one other particular person’s contact quantity to a SIM card managed by the dangerous actor.
The accused allegedly used the stolen identification of an individual who had entry to SEC’s X account to take over that particular person’s cellphone quantity and entry the social media accounts linked to the cellphone quantity, enabling the untimely submit about Bitcoin ETFs.
Says FBI Legal 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 rely of conspiracy to commit aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud. He faces as much as 5 years of jail time.
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