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.

Popular Stories

Generic iOS 18 Feature Real Mock

iOS 18 Available Now With These 8 New Features For Your iPhone

Sunday September 15, 2024 10:09 am PDT by
Following over three months of beta testing, iOS 18 was finally widely released to the public on Monday, September 16. The update is available in the Settings app under General → Software Update on the iPhone XS and newer. Below, we have highlighted eight key new features included in iOS 18, and Apple shared a complete list of new features and changes last week. Note that Apple...
iOS 18 Public Beta Thumb 1

Here's When iOS 18 Rolls Out Today in Every Time Zone

Monday September 16, 2024 3:56 am PDT by
It's that time of year again. Apple is about to release iOS 18, which promises to bring a range of new features and improvements to iPhones worldwide. It's Apple's biggest software update of the year, and the company is expected to release it sometime today – Monday, September 16. Based on past releases, the update is likely to drop at around 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time/1:00 p.m. Eastern...
apple silicon mac lineup wwdc 2022 feature purple

M4 Macs, New iPad Mini, and iPad 11 Expected at Upcoming Apple Event

Sunday September 15, 2024 5:29 am PDT by
Apple will likely hold another event in October this year to announce new Macs and iPads. If so, it would be the fourth time in the last five years that Apple has held an event in October. Last year, Apple held a virtual event on Monday, October 30 to announce new MacBook Pro and iMac models with the M3 series of chips. In his Power On newsletter today, Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reiterated...
M4 Mac mini Black Ortho Cooler

Apple Leaks New Mac Mini With 5 USB-C Ports

Monday September 16, 2024 11:40 am PDT by
Apple has seemingly leaked the rumored next-generation Mac mini with five USB-C ports, according to a code change within Apple software that was discovered today by MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The code refers to an unreleased Mac mini model with an Apple silicon chip and five ports, which lines up with a previous report from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman that said the next Mac mini will be ...
16 pro

iPhone 16 Pro Demand Has Been Lower Than Expected, Analyst Says

Sunday September 15, 2024 3:58 pm PDT by
Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo today said demand for the iPhone 16 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro Max has been "lower than expected" since the devices became available to pre-order in the U.S. and dozens of other countries on Friday. Kuo said his data is based on a "supply chain survey" and shipping estimates listed on Apple's online store. Kuo estimated that sales of all four iPhone 16 models reached...
Beyond iPhone 13 Better Blue Face ID Single Camera Hole

10 Reasons to Wait for Next Year's iPhone 17

Friday September 13, 2024 2:40 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...

Top Rated Comments

n0va Avatar
46 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
46 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
46 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
46 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
46 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
46 months ago
Calling him a "teenager" is not appropriate. I prefer the term "douchebag"
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)