SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

A British hacker behind the 2020 takeover of the Twitter accounts of Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and several other personalities as part of a Bitcoin scam has been sentenced to five years in prison. The hacker, 24-year-old Joseph O’Connor from Liverpool, took over nearly 130 accounts in July 2020, and pleaded guilty to charges of hacking these profiles last month. He was extradited from Spain on 26 April to face charges and now the US Attorney’s Office in the southern district of New York has sentenced him to five years for cyber crimes. In May, the hacker pled to four counts of computer hacking, wire fraud, and cyberstalking, according to Tech Crunch. The US justice department accused Mr O’Connor of participating in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion and cyberstalking. The hacker, known as PlugwalkJoe online, has also been ordered to pay nearly $800,000 to the victims of his crimes. He had participated in the exploitation of social media accounts, as well as online extortion, using social engineering tricks to get access to Twitter accounts. New York’s Department of Financial Services investigated and found that the hackers had called Twitter employees, claiming to be the IT department. Another hacker Graham Ivan Clark – known as Kirk – reportedly used this access to hijack and reassign Twitter accounts. Using stolen accounts, hackers sent out tweets asking followers to send bitcoin to an account, promising to double their money. Mr O’Connor also pled guilty of using a cyber intrusion technique called a “SIM swap attack” to steal cryptocurrency from a Manhattan-based company and then to launder the proceeds of the scheme. In this mode of cyber attack, hackers gain control of a victim’s mobile phone number by linking that number to a SIM card controlled by the threat actors. This leads to the victim’s calls and messages being routed to a malicious unauthorised device controlled by the hackers, who then use control of the victim’s mobile phone number to obtain unauthorised access to accounts held by the victim registered to their mobile phone numbers. Twitter said it improved the social media platform’s cybersecurity controls following the cyberattack. In addition to the prison term, Mr O’Connor has been sentenced to three years of supervised release and further ordered to pay about $794,000 in forfeiture. Read More How bad is bitcoin for the environment really? Crypto experts discuss bitcoin price predictions What is Solana? The crypto rising 200-times faster than bitcoin Hacker reveals secret ‘Elon Mode’ in Tesla cars for full self-driving Hackers strike Iranian government, releasing presidential documents China calls hacking report 'far-fetched' and accuses the US of targeting the cybersecurity industry

MAUMEE, Ohio--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 17, 2023--

Dramatic explosions on the surface of one of Saturn's moons have been observed, and it could change the way scientists approach the search for life in the universe. Saturn's ice-covered moon Enceladus has been the subject of attention from astronomers for decades after plumes of water vapor were observed erupting from its surface 20 years ago by the Cassini spacecraft. Now, the biggest plume yet has been spotted by the James Webb Space Telescope and it measures a massive 10,000 kilometers in length. Incredibly, the plume emitting from the geyser on the surface measures 20 times the size of the moon itself, and it indicates that there’s more to Enceladus than previously thought. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Planetary scientist Geronimo Villanueva of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center said: "When I was looking at the data, at first, I was thinking I had to be wrong, it was just so shocking to map a plume more than 20 times the diameter of the moon. "The plume extends far beyond what we could have imagined." Instead of solid ice, the size of the plume shows us that there’s a liquid ocean under the surface. It’s kept warm enough to avoid freezing due to the movement that results from the gravitational pull of Saturn. As ever, the existence of liquid water suggests that there’s the possibility of life existing there, and it's encouraging news for authors of the study accepted in Nature Astronomy. "The orbit of Enceladus around Saturn is relatively quick, just 33 hours. As it whips around Saturn, the moon and its jets are basically spitting off water, leaving a halo, almost like a donut, in its wake," Villanueva said. "In the Webb observations, not only was the plume huge, but there was just water absolutely everywhere." It remains one of the most interesting bodies being studied in the solar system, as geochemist Christopher Glein of the Southwest Research Institute. “Enceladus is one of the most dynamic objects in the Solar System and is a prime target in humanity's search for life beyond Earth," geochemist Christopher Glein of the Southwest Research Institute said. "In the years since NASA's Cassini spacecraft first looked at Enceladus, we never cease to be amazed by what we find is happening on this extraordinary moon." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

BALTIMORE & CAMPBELL, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 12, 2023--

SpaceX's second private flight just made history by sending Saudi Arabia's first female astronaut towards the International Space Station. The SpaceX Falcon rocket launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Centre on Sunday night, and the astronaut and the other three passengers are expected to reach the space station in their capsule on Monday, where they will hang out for just over a week. Saudi Arabia's first astronauts in decades are stem cell researcher Rayyanah Barnawi, and Royal Saudi Air Force fighter pilot Ali al Qarni. "This is a dream come true for everyone," Barnawi said before the flight. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "Just being able to understand that this is possible - if me and Ali can do it, then they can do it, too." The journey was organised by Houston-based Axiom Space and the crew was led by Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who holds the US record for the most accumulated time in space - 665 days and counting. The company would not reveal how much the latest tickets cost, but previously cited per-seat prices of $55m (£44m). Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

By Zeba Siddiqui SAN FRANCISCO Senior U.S. government officials warned on Tuesday of serious national security risks if

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 24, 2023--

Bots beware, Spotify is cracking down on artificial streaming. Spotify took down tens of thousands

President Joe Biden’s signature economic legislation promised to create a wave of demand for made-in-America electric vehicles by

NuScale Power Corp., the first company with US approval for a small nuclear reactor design, is canceling plans

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