A 17-year-old male from Florida has been arrested for being the alleged “mastermind” behind the massive Twitter hack that targeted high profile accounts with a Bitcoin scam, according to prosecutors.
Graham Clark of Tampa Bay faces 30 felony charges in connection with the Bitcoin scam, according to Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew H. Warren. The charges include counts of organized fraud, communications fraud, and use of personal information.
The Bitcoin scheme gained access to dozens of top profiles like those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Elon Musk and more, and reaped over $100,000 in stolen Bitcoin. Prosecutors also noted it would be difficult to recover the stolen funds, which mainly targeted “everyday Americans.”
“These crimes were perpetrated using the names of famous people and celebrities, but they’re not the primary victims here,” Warren said in a statement released to Digital Trends. “This ‘Bit-Con’ [sic] was designed to steal money from regular Americans from all over the country, including here in Florida. This massive fraud was orchestrated right here in our backyard, and we will not stand for that.”
The arrest was made in conjunction with The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Department of Justice, who conducted a nationwide search for the culprits. According to jail records, Clark was identified and arrested early on July 31, 2020.
As the alleged mastermind of the attack, Clark will be tried as an adult despite being a teen, as Florida law allows in cases of large financial fraud.
According to the Department of Justice, two more co-conspirators have been named and charged in the attack. Nineteen-year-old U.K.-based hacker Mason Sheppard was charged in the Northern District of California on at least three counts of fraud, including money laundering and wire fraud. Fellow hacker, 22-year-old Florida resident Nima Fazeli, was also named as a conspirator, and charged with aiding and abetting international access.
Instagram is testing a new format for long-form videos called Features. It allows select creators to upload horizontal videos running up to 90 minutes long. Instagram has already tested the new format with creators in Brazil, and now, it's expanding to tens of thousands of creators across the US.
How will Instagram's new Features format work?
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
I have lost count of how many times I have gone to bed thinking I will finally sleep on time, only to somehow end up scrolling Instagram or X again. A few minutes turn into an hour, then another, and before I notice, it is 2 or 3 a.m. The next morning, I am usually annoyed with myself because I could have just slept and felt considerably better for the day ahead.
It is also a surprisingly hard habit to beat. Knowing you should put the phone down does not always help once it is already in your hand. Brick Night is a new gadget built around that exact problem. Instead of relying on you to remember to turn on an app blocker, it automatically restricts selected apps and websites when your phone enters your chosen sleep space during the hours you set.