Summary: An Alabama man, Eric Council Jr., pleaded guilty to hijacking the SEC’s X account in a SIM swapping attack, enabling a fake announcement about Bitcoin ETF approvals. The fraudulent post caused Bitcoin’s price to spike before crashing after the SEC confirmed the account hack. Council’s actions involved impersonating a victim and utilizing his personal computer for research related to the attack and FBI investigations.
Affected: U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
Keypoints :
- Eric Council Jr., 25, pleaded guilty to conspiracy for his role in hacking the SEC’s X account.
- A fake announcement about Bitcoin ETFs led to significant volatility in Bitcoin pricing.
- Council faces a maximum of five years in prison; he created a fraudulent ID to impersonate a victim for the SIM swap attack.