Florida teen arrested in massive Twitter hack

17-year-old boy faces 30 felony charges. Authorities said he hacked Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk.

By

National News

July 31, 2020 - 4:01 PM

MIAMI (AP) — A Florida teen hacked the Twitter accounts of prominent politicians, celebrities and technology moguls to scam people around globe out of more than $100,000 in Bitcoin, authorities said Friday.

The 17-year-old boy was arrested earlier Friday in Tampa, where the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office will prosecute the case. He faces 30 felony charges, according to a news release.

The hacks led to bogus tweets being sent out July 15 from the accounts of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and a number of tech billionaires including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Celebrities Kanye West and his wife, Kim Kardashian West, were also hacked.

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