A member of the gang suspected of hacking Jack Dorsey’s Twitter has been arrested

A former member of a hacker group responsible for taking over notable social media profiles has been arrested, Motherboard reported.

The alleged member was involved with the “Chuckling Squad,” a group of hackers, and their takeover of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s account that resulted in offensive posts that included racial slurs, bomb threats, and anti-Semitism. One of the leaders of the group, who goes by the handle Debug, told Motherboard that the member was arrested approximately two weeks ago.

“He was a member of Chuckling Squad but not anymore. He was an active member for us by providing celebs/public figure [phone] numbers and helped us hack them,” Debug told the site, adding that the group kicked out the unnamed member in October.

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office told Motherboard that several law enforcement agencies were involved in the arrest, including the department’s Regional Enforcement Allied Computer Team.

The group largely uses SIM swapping, a technique that hackers employ which involves convincing cellphone companies to transfer a victim’s phone number to a SIM card that the hacker controls, which they can use to access accounts and reset passwords.

Several accounts belonging to YouTube celebrities, including beauty vlogger James Charles, Shane Dawson, and King Bach have fallen victim to the technique.

Authorities have zeroed in on the technique, which has been identified as responsible for hackers accessing high-profile accounts in addition to triggering SWAT threats and stealing cryptocurrency.

Wired previously reported that smartphone users can protect themselves from SIM swapping by adding a passcode to their carrier account or using a third-party app – such as Google Authenticator and Authy- for two-factor authentication.

Source: BusinessInsider