Breaking: US SEC Twitter Hack Suspect Set To Receive Plea Deal

Federal prosecutors are planning to offer a plea deal to Eric Council Jr., an Alabama man accused of involvement in a high-profile hack of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s official X account, formerly known as Twitter.

This incident was a form of social engineering where a fake message was posted concerning the approval of Bitcoin ETFs and temporarily influenced the cryptocurrency market. Council, who was also charged but entered a not guilty plea, has other charges including conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud.

US SEC Twitter Hack Suspect Set To Receive Plea Deal

During a hearing in Washington federal court, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin Rosenberg announced that prosecutors plan on continuing the offer of a plea deal to Council.

”We will extend a plea,” Rosenberg told U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson saying, “I have no idea if it will be accepted or not.” Should the Council agree to the plea deal, Council’s assistance might help federal authorities to identify and prosecute other persons allegedly engaged in the hacking conspiracy.

The prosecution has also stated that Council was not operating on his own and that he was instructed by other people who had a considerable part in organizing and carrying out the attack.

These co-conspirators, it is alleged, targeted the victim, an employee of the US SEC, and worked with Council to use a technique known as SIM swapping to penetrate the security measures put in place to protect the Securities and Exchange Commission’s social media account.

Alleged Use of SIM Swap Attack 

The charges against Eric Council Jr include allegations of using a SIM swap attack, a type of cybercrime where a fraudster redirects a victim’s phone number to a different device.

Prosecutors claim that Council used this method to obtain access to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s staff member’s account by creating a fake ID and convincing a phone store employee to transfer the victim’s phone number to a new device. This unauthorized access was then used by the hackers to control the SEC’s official X account.

Once in control of the account, Eric Council Jr and his accomplices allegedly posted a fake message on January 9, 2024, suggesting that the US SEC had approved Bitcoin ETFs. This announcement came just one day before the agency officially authorized the ETFs after a lengthy legal process.

The post led to a temporary increase in Bitcoin’s price by over $1,000 before the SEC regained control of the account and corrected the information, causing the price to drop by more than $2,000.