Face Behind The Massive Twitter Hack Is A 17-Year Old Boy And Two Others

A British man, a Florida man and a Florida teen were identified and arrested by authorities on Friday for leading the massive Twitter hack earlier this month which is known to be the biggest cybercrime in the history of the internet.

The hack, taking place on July 15, targeted a number of prominent Twitter accounts, including those of former President Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, among others. Their accounts were hacked to send bitcoins to an unknown address and getting double in return.

The 17-year-old, Graham Ivan Clark, who is called the mastermind of hack is facing 30 felony charges including organized fraud, communications fraud, identity theft and hacking, carrying potential penalties of more than $100,000. Those charges have been filed by Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren in Florida.

Meanwhile, the other two, Shepard and Fazeli, have been charged in federal court in California. Shepard was charged with computer intrusion, wire fraud conspiracy and money laundering conspiracy, with the most serious charge bringing 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

Fazeli was charged with one count of computer intrusion, which carries a max sentence of five years and a $250,000 fine.

On the other hand, Twitter said that the hackers obtained employee credentials, allowing them to target 130 accounts, tweeting from 45, accessing direct message inboxes of 36 and downloading data from seven. Twitter temporarily prevented verified accounts from tweeting on the day of the incident and announced an immediate investigation into what occurred.