Tonight authorities have charged three suspects in connection with the unprecedented hack of some of twitter's most famous users. Florida state officials billing 17-year-old Graham Ivan Clark from Tampa as the mastermind, allegedly working with a nineteen-year-old from the U.K known as chaewon and a 22-year-old Floridian called Rolex. I want to say to would-be offenders, break the law and we will find you. All three suspects charged in stealing access to the accounts of former president Barack Obama, former vice president Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk and Bill Gates, using them to ask people to send bitcoin and promising to double their money, scamming them out of over a hundred thousand dollars.
Twitter says the scam targeted a small number of employees by phone, enabling hackers to access celebrity accounts and direct messages. Clark will be charged as an adult, facing 30 state felonies. Twitter today saying we appreciate the swift actions of law enforcement and will continue to cooperate. Increasingly we rely on platforms like twitter to receive news and other information that is important to our lives. The twitter vip hack undermines public confidence in those information platforms. And with the presidential election less than 100 days away, voters are getting their information on social media. Now more than ever, especially without rallies or in-person campaign stops during this pandemic.