The hacker, a 25-year-old Alabama man, pretended to be an FBI employee while at an AT&T store to pull off the 'SIM swap,' which led to access to the SEC's account on X/Twitter.

A 25-year-old hacker, Eric Council Jr. was arrested today for his unauthorized control over SEC’s X account in January 2024. The hack ended up in spiking the price of Bitcoin by $1000. Later it dropped back by $2000.

Council allegedly used the stolen personal information of an unnamed victim as well as an iPhone to break through the X account's security measures, according to the indictment. The alleged scheme at one point involved Council impersonating an FBI employee who lost his phone, the government says.