Joseph O’Connor, also known as PlugwalkJoe, has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing $794,000 worth of cryptocurrency through a SIM swap attack on a crypto exchange executive back in 2019. In addition to his sentence, O’Connor was ordered to pay the amount he stole in forfeiture and serve three years of supervised release.
O’Connor’s sentence also covers offenses related to the major Twitter hack of July 2020. The hackers used social engineering techniques and SIM-swapping attacks to hijack around 130 prominent Twitter accounts, along with two large accounts on TikTok and Snapchat, ultimately earning them around $120,000 worth of ill-gotten crypto gains.
SIM swap attacks remain a significant issue in the crypto sector, with scammers recently targeting at least eight accounts belonging to well-known figures in crypto, stealing almost $1 million by promoting phishing links from these hacked accounts.