https://twitter.com/Twitter/header_photo

.

Joseph James O'Connor is a British man. Here are 10 more things about him:

  1. He is a citizen of the United Kingdom. (a)
  2. He hails from Liverpool, Merseyside, England, U.K. (b)
  3. He also goes by the handle PlugWalkJoe. (b) (c)
  4. He is an expert in sim-swapping, a method of hijacking valuable social media accounts by manipulating cellular network employees to duplicate phone numbers, allowing hackers to intercept two-factor authorization requests. (b)
  5. Investigators in California, United States started receiving tips about him as far back as 2018. Law enforcement officials identified him with help from witnesses who had heard his voice on Google calls and a combination of messages he sent on the social media platform Discord. (d)
  6. Amid the new coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic from 2020 to 2021, he was in Spain where he was attending a university. (b) (c)
  7. On July 15, 2020, he allegedly participated in the hacking of more than 130 Twitter accounts that belong to celebrities, politicians and companies. (a)
  8. On July 17, 2020, he was interviewed about his alleged participation in the Twitter hack on July 15, 2020. He said, "They can come arrest me. I would laugh at them. I haven't done anything." (c)
  9. On July 21, 2021, the Spanish National Police arrested him in Estepona, Spain. (a)
  10. He was 22 years old when he was arrested on July 21, 2021. He was charged by criminal complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with conspiracy to intentionally access a computer without authorization and with the intent to extort from a person a thing of value, transmitting a communication containing a threat; making extortive communications; making threatening communications; two counts of cyberstalking; two counts of intentionally accessing a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer; and three counts of conspiracy to intentionally access a computer without authorization and obtaining information from a protected computer. (a)

.

(This is a developing story. More details will be added.)

SOURCES:

 This post is ad-supported
​