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The long arm of the law has caught up to a man who compromised the social media account of a major federal department a year ago.
The Associated Press reported that Eric Council Jr., aged 25 and from Alabama man admitted Monday to taking part in a January 2024 hack of a US Securities and Exchange Commission social media account designed to manipulate the price of Bitcoin.
Back in January 2024, a SEC post on X (formerly Twitter) said the SEC had approved the first spot Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs), causing the price of Bitcoin to skyrocket to $48,000 (£38,000) before the post was removed.
SEC account hack
The SEC quickly confirmed that the “@SECGov X account had been compromised, and an unauthorised and premature post was posted. The SEC said it had not approved the listing and trading of spot Bitcoin exchange-traded products.
A few weeks later it emerged that a hacker had been able to take control of a phone number associated with the SEC official account on X
The phone number associated with its X account had been transferred to a different phone using a SIM swap hack, in which a telecoms carrier was tricked into transferring a number to a device under the hacker’s control.
The hacker then created a new password and authenticate the process via a message sent to the phone number.
The agency said that multi-factor authentication (MFA), which requires an additional layer of security, such as a dedicated app, had been disabled for six months at the time of the hack at the SEC’s request.
The unauthorised post had claimed that the SEC had granted approval for bitcoin ETFs on all registered national securities exchanges and included a picture purporting to quote SEC Chair Gary Gensler.
“The SEC grants approval for #Bitcoin ETFs for listing on all registered national securities exchanges,” the fake SEC tweet had read.
The price of Bitcoin rose more than $1,000 after the post, but then fell after the hack had been confirmed.
However the federal agency had officially confirmed the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs a day later.
Guilty plea
Now the Associated Press, citing court records, reported that Eric Council Jr has pleaded guilty to an identity theft charge in US District Court in Washington.
Council’s sentencing is slated for 16 May and he faces a maximum of five years in prison.
Council had reportedly been arrested in October and was charged with helping to break into the SEC’s account on X, allowing unnamed co-conspirators to falsely announce the approval of long-awaited bitcoin exchange-traded funds, prosecutors have said.
Prosecutors said that Council had carried out a “SIM swap,” using a fake ID to impersonate someone with access to the SEC’s X account and convince a cellphone store to give him a SIM card linked to the person’s phone.
Council was able to take over the person’s cellphone number and get access codes to the SEC’s X account, which he shared with others who broke into the account and sent the post, the Justice Department said.
Prosecutors said Council received payment from his co-conspirators in Bitcoin and made about $50,000 as part of the scheme.
