You really had to dare! Eric Council, a 25-year-old living in Athens (Alabama), was arrested for hacking into the X account of the American Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in January 2024, indicate American media, including the agency Reuters.
According to US prosecutors, he participated in a conspiracy to manipulate the price of bitcoin. The hacker posted a fake message to the @SECGov account, falsely announcing that the SEC had approved bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), causing the price of the cryptocurrency to rise by $1,000. The SEC quickly disavowed and deleted the post, but the incident raised concerns about the security of the X platform.
SIM card exchange
According to the District of Columbia Attorney’s Office, Eric Council allegedly executed a “SIM swap hack,” transferring the phone of a person with access to the SEC account to a new device. He then allegedly published the false message, in exchange for payment in bitcoin. After the attack, Eric Council allegedly searched the internet for phrases like “what are the signs the FBI is looking for you” and attempted to delete Telegram accounts.
The site The Register recalled the words of Charles Carmakal, technical director of Mandiant, a Google subsidiary specializing in cybersecurity. At the start of the year, the latter explained that many scammers were carrying out SIM card swaps on the devices of the children of business executives, then calling the intended target.
Up to five years of imprisonment
The Justice Department indicted him for conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. He faces a sentence of up to five years in prison. “The FBI and our partners will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who attempt to manipulate financial markets for their own benefit,” Chad Yarbrough, deputy director of the FBI’s Criminal Investigation Division, said in a statement.
For its part, the SEC thanked the police for their action. “The SEC thanks law enforcement for its vigilance in pursuing accountability for the SEC X Account violation,” the commission wrote in a statement.
