The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday arrested an Alabama man who was allegedly behind the hacking of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) account on social media platform X last January.
The U.S. Department of Justice says Eric Council Jr. is accused of conspiring with others to take unauthorized control of SEC’s to announce. .
According to X, the regulator has not set up multi-factor authentication (MFA) for his profile.
The false announcement caused the price of Bitcoin to rise by more than $1,000 and then fall by more than $2,000 after the SEC regained control of his security.
The Council is said to have carried out the hack via an unauthorized Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swap, which fraudulently persuades a mobile phone company to assign someone else’s contact number to a SIM card controlled by the bad actor.
The suspect allegedly used the stolen identity of an individual who had access to SEC’s premature notice about Bitcoin ETFs was made possible.
Says Chad Yarbrough, Assistant Director of the FBI Criminal Investigative Division,
“The defendant allegedly deceived the public by posing as the victim and making fraudulent statements on behalf of the SEC. The FBI and our partners will continue to investigate and hold accountable those who attempt to manipulate the financial markets for their own gain.”
Council is charged with conspiracy to commit aggravated identity theft and access device fraud. He faces a prison sentence of five years.
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