SEC hacker once Googled ‘if I am being investigated by the FBI’
Eric Council Jr. executed a SIM swap hack on the SEC's X account, leading to a false announcement about a Bitcoin ETF approval that disrupted markets. He earned $50,000 from similar attacks and sought information on FBI investigations. Council impersonated a victim using fake identity documents to convince AT&T to reassign the victim's phone number to his SIM card. He then accessed the SEC's X account and shared it with co-conspirators, resulting in a misleading post that gained over 1 million views. Bitcoin's price fluctuated significantly due to the incident. Council was arrested after being observed attempting another SIM swap and later pleaded guilty to identity theft and fraud charges. The SEC's X account lacked two-factor authentication during the hack, which had been mistakenly disabled.
