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US man who hacked SEC’s X account to spike Bitcoin price sentenced to prison

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The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) headquarters in Washington, DC.

Eric Council Jr., 26, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and three years of supervised release for his involvement in the hack of the official X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

The U.S. Department of Justice made the announcement regarding Council’s sentencing in a press release. In 2024, Council and a group of hackers took control of the SEC’s X account to falsely announce the approval of Bitcoin exchange traded funds (ETFs), causing a surge in the cryptocurrency’s price that later dropped.

A screenshot of the fake SEC post published by hackers who took over control of the @SECGov X account on January 9, 2024

The DOJ revealed that Council and his partners executed a SIM swap attack on the cellphone account of an individual with access to the SEC’s X account. This attack enabled the hackers to take over the phone number and subsequently reset the password to gain control of the SEC’s X account.

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