The FBI has arrested Eric Council Jr., 25, of Athens, Alabama, in connection with the January 2024 unauthorized takeover of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) X account, previously known as Twitter.
The arrest follows allegations that Council played a key role in a hacking incident that led to a false post from the SEC Chair’s account, which caused a temporary spike in the value of Bitcoin.
US SEC Twitter Hacker Responsible For Fake Bitcoin ETF Arrested
According to the indictment, Eric Council was involved in a conspiracy to take control of the US SEC’s X account on January 9, 2024.
The method used was a “SIM swap” attack, a type of fraud where a phone number is illegally reassigned from its rightful owner to a device controlled by the hacker. Using this method, Council and his co-conspirators gained access to the SEC’s account.
After taking control, they posted a fake message from the SEC Chair, falsely claiming that the agebnxy had approved the listing of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) on all national securities exchanges. This announcement caused Bitcoin’s price to increase by over $1,000. However, once the US SEC regained control of its account and issued a correction, Bitcoin’s price fell by more than $2,000.
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