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Technology

Minor hacker who broke into Twitter CEO's account arrested

San Francisco, Nov 25

The hacker, a minor who hacked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey's account by the 'SIM swapping' technique in August and sent out numerous anti-semitic and Nazi-related tweets has been arrested.

Authorities arrested the individual who is part of The Chuckling Squad, a hacker group behind Dorsey's hack that has also claimed responsibility for hacks of other celebrities, including actress Chloe Grace Moretz, Motherboard reported on Sunday.

"He was a member of Chuckling Squad but not anymore. He was an active member for us by providing celebs/public figure [phone] numbers and helped us hack them," a leader in the hacking group known as "Debug" was quoted as saying.

Debug said the group kicked out the member behind Dorsey hacking in October.

In that hack, the individual obtained Dorsey's phone number.

"The rest of the hack was completed by themselves and other Chuckling Squad leaders known as Aqua and NuBLoM," informed 'Debug'.

"We applaud the efforts of all the law enforcement agencies involved in this arrest," said Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, which manages the Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team (REACT).

Hackers in August broke into Twitter CEO's account and posted a flurry of rogue tweets, including racial slurs.

The micro-blogging platform later said that it secured Dorsey's account which became a victim of 'SIM swapping' or 'SIM jacking' where a mobile number is transferred to a new SIM card.

"The phone number associated with the account was compromised due to a security oversight by the mobile provider," Twitter has said in a statement.

"This allowed an unauthorised person to compose and send tweets via text messages from the phone number," the company added.