Athens man arrested in connection with SEC hack

ATHENS, Ala. (WAFF) – The FBI announced that an Athens man was arrested Thursday after an investigation into the hacking of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) social media account.

According to the FBI, Eric Council Jr. was arrested Thursday morning.

They said he conspired with others to take unauthorized control of the SEC’s X account, formerly known as Twitter. They said the Board used SEC Chairman Gary Gensler’s name to prematurely assert that the SEC had approved the first Bitcoin exchange-traded funds.

An exchange-traded fund is a pooled investment security that can be bought and sold like an individual stock.

Investigators said the price of bitcoin rose by more than $1,000 per bitcoin (BTC) immediately after the announcement.

Shortly after this publication, the SEC regained control of his account and confirmed that the announcement was unauthorized and the result of a security breach.

After the second announcement, the value of BTC decreased by more than $2,000, according to the FBI.

The FBI said Council gained control of the account through an unauthorized Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) exchange.

The FBI defines a SIM swap as the process of fraudulently inducing a wireless carrier to reassign a cell phone number from the SIM card of a legitimate subscriber or user to a SIM card controlled by a criminal actor .

Investigators said Council created a fraudulent identification document in the victim’s name, which he used to impersonate the victim.

If convicted, Council faces a maximum of five years in prison.

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