The FBI has arrested the man who hacked the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account last January. He took the opportunity to announce a false approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs, causing a significant rise and then a fall in the price of Bitcoin and more broadly the entire crypto market.
Man Behind Fake SEC Tweet About Bitcoin ETFs Arrested
The FBI announced the arrest of Eric Council Jr., a 25-year-old resident of Athens, Alabama, who is accused of having hacked the official account X of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2024.
According to the authorities, the individual had used SIM swapping to illegally access the account of the American regulator, publishing a false message that propelled the cryptocurrency market up for a moment by announcing an approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
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SIM swapping
SIM swapping involves impersonating a user from a telephone operator to divert the telephone number to a new SIM card controlled by criminals. This typically allows malicious individuals to access accounts by requesting a new password through a change of phone number.
Shortly after, the president of the SEC, Gary Gensler denied the newsspecifying that the SEC account had been compromised. Bitcoin then lost more than $2,000 in the processcanceling the gains generated by the false ad as quickly as they appeared.
Tea @SECGov twitter account was compromised, and an unauthorized tweet was posted. The SEC has not approved the listing and trading of spot bitcoin exchange-traded products.
— Gary Gensler (@GaryGensler) January 9, 2024
The young man is accused of aggravated identity theft and of computer fraudcharges which could lead to severe penalties due to the seriousness of the incident, which, as we said, had caused a significant increase in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
These SIM swapping attacks can have devastating consequences, not only for the victims but also for the financial markets.
As noted by famous on-chain detective ZachXBTit is difficult to determine which is more funny between the fact that the SEC account X was not protected by a 2-factor authentication (2FA) system, and the research carried out by the man responsible for usurpation.
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Indeed, the latter, shortly after publishing the tweet leading to his arrest, carried out searches on the Internet such as “SECGOV hack”, “how to know for sure if I am the subject of an FBI investigation” or again “What are the signs that you are under investigation by law enforcement or the FBI, even if they haven't contacted you?” “.
idk if the SIM swapper is more low iq for these internet searches or the SEC for not using 2FA pic.twitter.com/269RFjk4Tc
— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) October 17, 2024
According to the press release from the American authorities, Eric Council is expected to make his first appearance today in the Northern District Court of Alabama to answer for his actions. The man would not a priori have acted alone, but his accomplices still seem unidentified at the time of writing these lines.
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Source: Press release
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