By cryptoadmin 
Eric Council Jr. from Alabama has pleaded responsible to being a co-conspirator within the unauthorized takeover of the US Securities and Change Fee's Twitter account final 12 months. In early January 2024, SEC's official X account tweeted that bitcoin ETFs had been permitted "for itemizing on all registered nationwide securities exchanges," however SEC Chair Gary Gensler rapidly introduced that the company's account was compromised. The fee later revealed that it was the sufferer of a SIM swapping assault, although it additionally admitted that it account wasn't protected by multi-factor authentication. Council was the one who carried out the SIM swap, in line with the Division of Justice.
Council used an ID card printer to create a faux ID that he then used to realize entry to a cellphone quantity related to the SEC's account. In a SIM swap, the perpetrator usually will get a person's service to reassign a cellphone quantity to a brand new SIM card that they management. His co-conspirators, who paid Council in bitcoin, then modified the SEC account's password to regulate it earlier than posting the false information together with a faux quote from Gensler. As for why the SEC's account was protected by MFA, the company beforehand stated that it requested X's help workers to disable it final July, as a result of it was having points with account entry. However it remained disabled till after the account was compromised.
Council, who was arrested in October, has pleaded responsible to aggravated identification theft and entry gadget fraud. He will likely be sentenced on Might 16 and will withstand 5 years in jail. The Justice Division stated Bitcoin rose by $1,000 after the faux announcement went up after which fell by $2,000 when the SEC issued a correction.
This text initially appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/man-from-alabama-pleads-guilty-over-secs-fake-bitcoin-post-on-x-133045810.html?src=rss