Arrested a hacker for a fake SEC tweet that caused a surge in Bitcoin price.
All I supposedly needed was a fake ID.
A man from Alabama has been arrested by the FBI on charges of hacking into the X account of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January. According to the indictment, 25-year-old Eric Council Jr., along with accomplices, managed to gain control of the account and post a false message from the SEC chairman, Gary Gensler, claiming that Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) had been approved. This event caused a temporary spike in the price of Bitcoin by over $1,000.
To execute his plan, Council allegedly created a fake ID using information from the person who controlled the SEC account. He then deceived AT&T into providing him with a SIM card associated with the victim's phone number, which he installed in a new iPhone he had purchased. Finally, he managed to take control of the SEC account using recovery authentication codes sent to that number and then returned the iPhone to the Apple store where he bought it.
Investigators also discovered that Council had conducted suspicious searches from his personal computer. These included terms like "SECGOV hacking," "SIM swap on Telegram," "how to know if I'm being investigated by the FBI?" and "what are the signs that you are under investigation by the police or the FBI, even if you have not been contacted by them?".