The Man Behind The SEC X Hack Was Arrested By FBI

Key Points:

• Eric Council Jr. was arrested for the SEC X hack in January 2024, posting a fake announcement about Bitcoin ETFs.
• Council used a fraudulent SIM swap to access the SEC account, creating a fake ID to obtain a SIM card and bypass security measures.

A 25-year-old man, from Athens, Alabama, was arrested during the early morning hours today in connection with a January 2024 cyber attack that implicated the X account of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Alabama Man Arrested for SEC X Hack and Bitcoin Surge

The FBI said that Eric Council Jr. allegedly orchestrated a scheme in which there was a fake posting on the SEC account that temporarily caused Bitcoin to surge by about $1,000. He is scheduled to make an appearance in the Northern District of Alabama today.

According to the indictment, on January 9, 2024, Council and his co-conspirators had hacked into the X account belonging to the SEC and made a sham post announcing that it had approved trading of spot Bitcoin ETFs. Soon after, the SEC disowned the post and quickly deleted it.

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The indictment outlines how Council allegedly perpetrated a SIM swap to gain unauthorized access to the SEC’s account. In a SIM swap attack, one fraudulently fools a phone carrier into moving a phone number from a legitimate user to a device that an attacker has in his possession. This bypasses two-factor authentication and allows hackers to gain access to online accounts.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case of the SEC X hack, Council allegedly had a cell phone provider in Huntsville issue him a SIM card linked to the victim’s phone number after he showed the provider a fake ID created using stolen personal information.

After having received the new SIM card, Council bought a new iPhone and was able to log into the SEC account. He then allegedly provided access codes to his co-conspirators, who published the phoney message. For this, he obtained payments in Bitcoin for his services in the SEC X hack.