Florida Teenager to Spend 3 Years in Prison for Twitter Hack That Affected Apple

A Florida teenager who was accused of being the "mastermind" behind a July 2020 Twitter hack that affected Apple has agreed to a plea deal that will see him spending three years in prison, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

apple bitcoin hack
Graham Ivan Clark, alongside others, compromised the Twitter accounts of 130 prominent companies and individuals to solicit Bitcoin, scamming people out of more than $100,000. Apple's official account was accessed, as were the accounts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, former U.S. President Barack Obama, former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, and President Joe Biden.

Clark this week will plead guilty to state charges in exchange for three years in prison and three years probation. Because Clark was just 17 at the time of the attack, he will be sentenced as a "youthful offender" and could be eligible to serve some of his time in a military-style boot camp.

Under the terms of the plea deal, Clark is not allowed to use computers without permission and supervision from law enforcement.

Twitter did an internal investigation after the breach and found that hackers targeted employees in a "phone spear phishing attack," tricking them into thinking they were speaking to other Twitter employees to gain access to Twitter's internal tools.

Mason "Chaewon" Sheppard from the UK and Nima "Rolex" Fazeli have also been charged in the attack and are facing prison time.

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Top Rated Comments

n0va Avatar
60 months ago
this might be the wrong takeaway but who the hell falls for a trillion-dollar corporation saying they'd double your bitcoin? i mean come on
Score: 41 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Itsedstech Avatar
60 months ago
Id honestly rather see them get hired by a cyber security company. Put their talent to good use.
Score: 28 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bpeeps Avatar
60 months ago
Someone needs to tell these kids before they do stupid stuff, that there are plenty of tech companies that would happily employ them for their expertise in these matters.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Apple_Robert Avatar
60 months ago

Doesn’t make sense. It’s Twitters fault for having such weak security and blame Jack for encouraging people to believe in ***** coins and lawless libertarian fantasies.
Security status or not, I don't rightfully see how Twitter (as a company) is to blame for what happened. The individuals that broke the law are to blame.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Lounge vibes 05 Avatar
60 months ago
I agree with this.
Way better than the 35 to 50 years that was being suggested.
He still being punished, but he’s not having his entire life taken away
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jesus on OSX Avatar
60 months ago
Calling him a "teenager" is not appropriate. I prefer the term "douchebag"
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)