Every now and then, a news story comes my way that just knocks me down.
Just when I think I have been at this so long that nothing could surprise me, something hits me head on. A lot of build up here, I know, but what I’m talking about is the teen and the Twitter breach.
The kid is from Tampa!
When it comes to tech stuff, I’m in the woods. I can barely pull off a Zoom call. Don’t even ask me what Bitcoin is. Cryptocurrency… huh?
But when a 17 year old from Tampa allegedly manages to hack the Twitter accounts of Joe Biden, Barack Obama, Elon Musk and Bill Gates… that I can follow.
The story goes like this… back in July, some prominent Twitter accounts were breached. Besides the names I mentioned, Jeff Bezos, Kanye West, Mike Bloomberg and Apple were also compromised.
The Twitter message from Apple: “We are giving back to our community. We support Bitcoin and we believe you should too. All Bitcoin sent to our address below will be sent back to you doubled.”
Then, there was a link and a warning that this would only be going on for the next thirty minutes.
The other messages were similar. And apparently, it worked. Over $100,000 in cryptocurrency was transferred to the hacker.
Now, cut to last Friday. A 17-year-old named Graham Ivan Clark from Tampa, Florida was arrested along with two others—a man from the U.K. and one from Orlando.
There is a great piece in the New York Times about how Clark might have managed to pull off this bit of criminal brilliance. “From Minecraft Tricks to Twitter Hack: A Florida Teen’s Troubled Online Path.”
Clark is in the Hillsborough County Jail now. I’m guessing he doesn’t have access to a computer.
A lot of people are comparing this to that movie “Catch Me if You Can” with Leonardo DiCaprio. In the end, DiCaprio’s character, Frank Abagnale, ends up working for the Feds to help catch bad guys.
Maybe Graham Clark has a future like that. He’s still young. If what he has been accused of doing is true, he still has time to turn things around. Help the Feds. Lord knows, he knows his way around a computer!
In my mind, I’ve already cast who will play Clark in his movie. Timothée Chalamet. The resemblance is striking.
This story is just getting going. It’s going to be fun to watch, too. And did I mention… the kid is from Tampa!
Update. At a bond reduction hearing, the judge had to stop the proceedings happening via Zoom. Something happened called a “Zoom bomb.” Hackers called in with loud music, foul language and pornography. Like I said, this is gonna be fun to watch!