Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “SEC Hacker Searched 'How to Tell If I'm Being Investigated by the FBI'”
Eric Council Jr., the SIM swap hacker who breached the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) X account last year, earned $50,000 through similar attacks and had searched for how to determine if the FBI was investigating him, according to recent documents.
This latest document is part of the prosecutors' request for a two-year prison sentence for him, as the hacking attack he participated in led to the SEC's X account posting a false announcement about the approval of a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, causing market turmoil.
According to court documents dated May 12, U.S. prosecutors discovered that after executing search warrants on Council's residence, car, and devices in June of last year, he had searched for: "How do I know if the FBI is investigating me?" and "How long does it take to delete a Telegram account?"
Although Council's Telegram chat settings were set to automatically delete after two weeks, U.S. prosecutors still found chat records discussing SIM swapping with others believed to be located overseas.
Council also admitted to law enforcement that he earned approximately $50,000 from executing SIM swaps for clients between January and June 2024. He referred to himself as a SIM swap expert under the username easymunny on Telegram, offering services that charged between $1,200 and $1,500.
Council executed the SIM swap attack by creating fake identification documents, specifically impersonating individuals confirmed by his accomplices who had access to the SEC X account.
These fake documents were used to deceive employees of the telecommunications company AT&T into reassigning the victim's phone number to Council's SIM card.
To carry out the SIM swap, Council had to provide the last four digits of the victim's Social Security number and driver's license information.
He then purchased a new iPhone at an Apple store in Alabama, inserted the new SIM card, and shared the SEC X account access code with his accomplices, who posted false information about the spot Bitcoin ETF on that account on January 9. These Bitcoin products received formal approval the following day.
According to prosecutors, Council received Bitcoin (BTC) and other forms of cryptocurrency as compensation for executing the SIM swap on the SEC account.
However, Council's illegal activities were halted on June 12, 2024, when surveillance personnel observed him attempting to impersonate another victim to execute a SIM swap operation at an Apple store.
Law enforcement executed a search warrant six days later and collected several key pieces of evidence, including templates for creating fake IDs found on his laptop.
He pleaded guilty on February 10, after a federal grand jury indicted him in October of last year for conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and device access fraud.
The false information had accumulated over one million views within about 15 minutes before the SEC confirmed that its account had been hacked.
These announcements triggered severe market volatility, with Bitcoin's price initially rising by $1,000 before sharply dropping by nearly $2,000, leading to the liquidation of market positions worth tens of millions of dollars.
The X platform's security team confirmed that the SEC's X account did not have two-factor authentication enabled at the time of the incident. The SEC stated that they had initially enabled two-factor authentication, but it was mistakenly removed by the X support team at the request of an SEC staff member.
Related: ZKsync X Hacker Spreads False SEC Investigation News, Suspected Intent to Crash the Market
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