Widow looking for answers after Quebec man dies in Texas Ironman competition
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
A British man has been charged in the United States in connection with a Twitter hack last summer that compromised the accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls, the Justice Department said Wednesday.
Joseph O'Connor, 22, was arrested in the coastal resort town of Estepona, Spain, on an arrest warrant accusing him of involvement in a July 2020 hack of more than 130 accounts, and of hacks that prosecutors said took over TikTok and Snapchat accounts, including “one of the most viewed and followed” TikTok stars. Prosecutors also accuse O'Connor of cyberstalking a juvenile.
A criminal complaint filed in federal court in the Northern District of California does not identify the popular TikTok personality whose account was compromised, but the date in the charging document matches up with the date that Addison Rae - who has about 82 million followers - revealed that she had been hacked.
The complaint charges O'Connor - who went by the online handle PlugWalkJoe - with crimes including cyberstalking, making extortive and threatening communications and intentionally accessing a computer without authorization.
It was not immediately clear if O'Connor had a lawyer, although in prior interviews he has denied wrongdoing.
During the high-profile security breach a year ago, fake tweets were sent from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon's then-CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The bogus tweets asked followers of the high-profile accounts to send Bitcoin payments. O'Connor is at least the fourth suspect charged in connection with the hack.
A Florida teenager was sentenced in March to three years in prison for his role in the hacking operation. Graham Ivan Clark pleaded guilty to multiple fraud charges as part of a deal with Hillsborough County prosecutors.
Andrew Warren, the Florida state attorney who prosecuted Clark, said in an interview Wednesday he still considers him to be the mastermind of the plot.
Warren said Clark was involved in the social engineering and hacking to get access to the Twitter accounts, as well as selling the accounts and sending out the tweets.
“And he's the one who collected six figures worth of Bitcoin,” Warren said.
The complaint against O'Connor on Wednesday said he conspired with Clark and others to benefit from the hack of Twitter accounts. Online chats obtained by investigators show that during the hack O'Connor expressed interest in buying some high-profile accounts, including Donald Trump's.
Prosecutors have said the plot originated in an online forum for people looking to obtain social media usernames that carry some prestige. Such coveted usernames, known as “OG” or “original gangster” accounts, are typically short and might have been created when Twitter was in its earliest stages more than a decade ago.
There's an underground market for stealing and trading the sought-after handles on Twitter and other social media sites such as Instagram or the gaming worlds of Minecraft and Fortnite.
Twitter, Instagram and TikTok earlier this year said they were cracking down on accounts affiliated with the theft and sale of OG usernames. Twitter declined to comment Wednesday on O'Connor's arrest. TikTok didn't respond to requests for comment.
AP writer Aritz Parra in Madrid contributed to this report
The widow of a Quebec man who died competing in an Ironman competition is looking for answers.
Former NDP leader Tom Mulcair says that what's happening now in a trash-littered federal park in Quebec is a perfect metaphor for how the Trudeau government runs things.
The world is seeing a near breakdown of international law amid flagrant rule-breaking in Gaza and Ukraine, multiplying armed conflicts, the rise of authoritarianism and huge rights violations in Sudan, Ethiopia and Myanmar, Amnesty International warned Wednesday as it published its annual report.
A photographer who worked for Megan Thee Stallion said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday that he was forced to watch her have sex, was unfairly fired soon after and was abused as her employee.
Facing pushback from physicians and businesspeople over the coming increase to the capital gains inclusion rate, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his deputy Chrystia Freeland are standing by their plan to target Canada's highest earners.
The Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would force TikTok's China-based parent company to sell the social media platform under the threat of a ban, a contentious move by U.S. lawmakers that's expected to face legal challenges.
People living near a wildfire burning about 15 kilometres southwest of Peace River are being told to evacuate their homes.
The U.S. Senate has passed US$95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, sending the legislation to President Joe Biden after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars.
A Winnipeg man said a single date gone wrong led to years of criminal harassment, false arrests, stress and depression.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.
Molly Knight, a Grade 4 student in Nova Scotia, noticed her school library did not have many books on female athletes, so she started her own book drive in hopes of changing that.
Almost 7,000 bars of pure gold were stolen from Pearson International Airport exactly one year ago during an elaborate heist, but so far only a tiny fraction of that stolen loot has been found.