A British hacker behind the 2020 takeover of the Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and several other personalities as part of a Bitcoin scam has been sentenced to five years in prison. The hacker, 24-year-old Joseph O’Connor from Liverpool, took over nearly 130 accounts in July 2020, and pleaded guilty to charges of hacking these profiles last month. He was extradited from Spain on 26 April to face charges and now the US Attorney’s Office in the southern district of New York has sentenced him to five years for cyber crimes. In May, the hacker pled to four counts of computer hacking, wire fraud, and cyberstalking, according to Tech Crunch. The US justice department accused Mr O’Connor of participating in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion and cyberstalking. The hacker, known as PlugwalkJoe online, has also been ordered to pay nearly $800,000 to the victims of his crimes. He had participated in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion, using social engineering tricks to get access to Twitter accounts. New York’s Department of Financial Services investigated and found that the hackers had called Twitter employees, claiming to be the IT department. Another hacker Graham Ivan Clark – known as Kirk – reportedly used this access to hijack and reassign Twitter accounts. Using stolen accounts, hackers sent out tweets asking followers to send bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money. Mr O’Connor also pled guilty of using a cyber intrusion technique called a “SIM swap attack” to steal cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based company and then to launder the proceeds of the scheme. In this mode of cyber attack, hackers gain control of a victim’s mobile phone number by linking that number to a SIM card controlled by the threat actors. This leads to the victim’s calls and messages being routed to a malicious unauthorised device controlled by the hackers, who then use control of the victim’s mobile phone number to obtain unauthorised access to accounts held by the victim registered to their mobile phone numbers. Twitter said it improved the social media platform’s cybersecurity controls following the cyberattack. In addition to the prison term, Mr O’Connor has been sentenced to three years of supervised release and further ordered to pay about $794,000 in forfeiture. Read More How bad is bitcoin for the environment really? Crypto experts discuss bitcoin price predictions What is Solana? The crypto rising 200-times faster than bitcoin Hacker reveals secret ‘Elon Mode’ in Tesla cars for full self-driving Hackers strike Iranian government, releasing presidential documents China calls hacking report 'far-fetched' and accuses the US of targeting the cybersecurity industry

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Apple is seeking the exclusive image rights of apples in Switzerland, according to a Swiss fruit growers association. Fruit Union Suisse, an 111-year-old organisation that promotes the interests of fruit farmers in the country, may be forced to change its logo if the US tech giant succeeds in its legal bid. The association’s logo features a red apple with a white cross on it, having been slightly revised in 2011 in order to celebrate the organisation’s centenary. “We have a hard time understanding this, because it’s not like they’re trying to protect their bitten apple.” Fruit Union Suisse director Jimmy Mariethoz told Wired. “Their objective here is really to own the rights to an actual apple, which, for us, is something that is really almost universal... that should be free for everyone to use.” It is one of several attempts by Apple to gain intellectual property rights over the eponymous fruit, according to the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Countries that have acquiesced to Apple’s demands include Armenia, Israel, Japan and Turkey. Separate records from the Tech Transparency Project show that Apple filed more trademark applications than Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft combined between 2019 and 2021. Apple first applied to the Swiss Institute of Intellectual Property for the trademark of a depiction of a Granny Smith apple in 2017, covering electronic, digital and audiovisual consumer goods. The request was only partially granted, leading Apple to submit an appeal earlier this year. “We’re concerned that any visual representation of an apple – so anything that’s audiovisual or linked to new technologies or to media – could be potentially impacted,” said Mariethoz. “Theoretically, we could be entering slippery territory every time we advertise with an apple.” The Independent has reached out to Apple for a response, though the company typically does not comment on ongoing legal matters. Read More Can Apple make us love virtual reality? | You Ask The Questions

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