Tampa Teen Pleads Not Guilty In Twitter Hacking

The 17-year-old Florida teenager accused of being the mastermind of a plot to hack prominent Twitter accounts pleaded not guilty Tuesday (Aug. 4) to the largest security breach in the social networking site’s 14-year history, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Graham Ivan Clark, who until last year was a student at Tampa’s Gaither High School, is accused of gaining access to the Twitter accounts and sending tweets soliciting others to send in payments of Bitcoin.

The U.S. Justice Department said Clark promised any Bitcoin sent would be doubled. In all, he collected $117,000 in three hours, prosecutors said.

He is being held on $725,000 bail, and his attorneys were expected to argue for a reduction. If convicted of the 30 hacking charges against him, Clark could spend the rest of his life in prison.

In addition to Clark, Mason Sheppard, 19, of the United Kingdom, was charged with computer intrusion, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money, which are punishable by up to 45 years in prison and a $750,000 fine.

Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, Florida, faces charges of aiding and abetting the intentional access of a protected computer. Fazeli has been charged with computer intrusion, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

On July 15, hackers seized control of the high-profile accounts of Joe Biden, Kim Kardashian, Bill Gates and dozens of other celebrities.

The San Francisco-based social networking service and the FBI have been investigating since the cyberattack was reported.

One week after hackers commandeered the accounts, former Twitter employees said that more than 1,000 staffers and contractors had access to internal tools for the breach. The former workers, who are familiar with Twitter security practices, said that many people had access, including Cognizant Corp., the New Jersey-based IT services provider.

In its blog, Twitter said the breach “relied on a significant and concerted attempt to mislead certain employees and exploit human vulnerabilities to gain access to our internal systems.”

The company followed up with: “By obtaining employee credentials, they were able to target specific employees who had access to our account support tools.”