Eric Council Jr., 26, was sentenced to 14 months in jail and three years of supervised launch on Friday for collaborating in the hack of the official X account of the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee.
The U.S. Division of Justice introduced the sentencing in a press launch. Council and different hackers took over the SEC’s X account in 2024 to falsely announce that the company had authorized Bitcoin alternate traded funds, or ETFs, which shot up the value of the cryptocurrency earlier than later dropping.
In line with the DOJ, Council and his co-conspirators carried out a SIM swap assault in opposition to the cellphone account of an individual who had entry to the SEC’s X account, which allowed the hackers to take management of their telephone quantity. From there, the hackers reset the password of the SEC’s X account, granting them management of the account.
