August
How a Teenager Hacked One of the Largest Social Media Platforms in America
PUBLISHED: Aug. 4, 2020
After months of digital reconnaissance, 17-year-old Florida resident Graham Ivan Clark managed to convince a Twitter employee he was co-worker. Prosecutors say this ultimately allowed him to hack the accounts of numerous high profile people including former President Barrack Obama and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Despite what you may have recently seen on your Twitter feed recently, dozens of notable, high-profile Americans including former President Barrack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos are not in fact, giving away tens of thousands of dollars in cryptocurrency to random Americans.
The tweets were allegedly sent by 17-year-old Florida native Graham Ivan Clark. After months of digital reconnaissance, the high school aged hacker was able to convince an employee of Twitter, one of the world's largest social media platforms, that he was a co-worker who worked in the company's IT department.
He was charged with compromising more than 100 social media accounts and scamming both the Twitter account holders, and the approximately 400 people from whom Mr. Clark allegedly received money in a scam. Two others were also charged—Mason Sheppard, of Bognor Regis, U.K., and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, Fla.—in connection with the hack.
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