Eric Council Jr., 26, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his involvement in the hack of the official X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
Details of the Hack
The U.S. Department of Justice revealed that Council and other hackers gained access to the SEC’s X account in 2024. They falsely announced that the agency had approved Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs), causing a significant increase in the cryptocurrency’s price before it later dropped.
Method of Attack
The DOJ stated that Council and his accomplices executed a SIM swap attack on the cellphone account of an individual with access to the SEC’s X account. This allowed the hackers to take control of the phone number and subsequently reset the account’s password, gaining full control of the X account.
