Twitter hack hearing hacked as graphic porn shuts down appearance of accused teenage ‘mastermind’ Graham Clark
Hackers playing porn and loud music forced a judge to end a bond hearing for the alleged ‘mastermind’ behind a massive hack of high-profile Twitter accounts belonging to Elon Musk, Barack Obama, Kanye West and many others.
The virtual hearing of Graham Ivan Clark lasted all of 25 minutes after several “Zoombombers” posing as staffers from CNN and BBC entered the chat app on Wednesday.
Judge Christopher Nash closed the stream for a few minutes before resuming, only for the hearing to be interrupted again.
“I’ll apologise to everybody for that display,” Mr Nash said after a Porn Hub sex clip. “I was removing people as quickly as I could.”
Well perhaps unsurprisingly the accused Twitter hacker-Bitcoin thief’s first (virtual) hearing was shut down within 25 minutes due to relentless Zoombombing. (It ended a minute after this when someone screenshared a Porn Hub video.) pic.twitter.com/fGiceq4WfN
— Jen Wieczner (@jenwieczner)
Security expert Brian Krebs commented on Twitter that the judge didn’t enable settings that would prevent people from taking over the screen.
“My guess is he didn’t know he could,” Mr Krebs said. “Judges holding hearings over Zoom need to get a clue.”
Clark, of Tampa in Florida, has pleaded not guilty to 30 felony charges over the hack of high-profile celebrities, politicians and business leaders.
In announcing the arrest, Hillsborough State Attorney Andrew Warren said the “mastermind” behind the “Bit-Con” hack was no ordinary teenager.
He said Mr Clark gained access to the accounts and internal Twitter controls through compromising a company employee, before selling access to some accounts and using high-profile identities to solicit bitcoin.
Twitter said the hack exposed 130 accounts, with tweets made from 45, direct messages accessed in 36 in-boxes, and data download from seven users.
Attorneys for Clark filed a motion to lower the bond of $725,000 to a more financially feasible amount for the teenager, who had just recently graduated from high school. They argued that it was unreasonable since the amount he’s accused of stealing, $117,000, is just a fraction of the bond.
According to WFLA News Channel 8, which tuned into the virtual hearing, the judge kept the bond unchanged and made a pointed promise when scheduling the next appearance.
“October 7, 1.30, by Zoom. That will be a password protected Zoom conference,” Mr Nash said.
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