Graham Ivan Clark (born January 9, 2003) is an American

computer hacker A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...

cybercriminal A cybercrime is a crime that involves a computer or a computer network.Moore, R. (2005) "Cyber crime: Investigating High-Technology Computer Crime," Cleveland, Mississippi: Anderson Publishing. The computer may have been used in committing the ...

and a convicted felon regarded as the mastermind behind the

2020 Twitter account hijacking On July 15, 2020, between 20:00 and 22:00 UTC, reportedly 130 high-profile Twitter accounts were compromised by outside parties to promote a bitcoin scam. Twitter and other media sources confirmed that the perpetrators had gained access to Twi ...

Early life

Graham Ivan Clark grew up in

Hillsborough County, Florida Hillsborough County is located in the west central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. In the 2020 census, the population was 1,459,762, making it the fourth-most populous county in Florida and the most populous county outside the Miami metrop ...

, with his mother, father, and older sister. His parents divorced when he was 7; as of 2020, his father lives in

Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...

. During his teenage years, Clark used various aliases while participating in online communities, gaining notoriety as a scammer in the "hardcore factions" ''

Minecraft ''Minecraft'' is a sandbox game developed by Mojang Studios. The game was created by Markus "Notch" Persson in the Java programming language. Following several early private testing versions, it was first made public in May 2009 before being ...

'' community. In 2018, Graham joined

OGUsers OGUsers (OGU) is an internet forum that facilitates the discussion and hacking of social media accounts and online usernames. Established in 2017, the website is dedicated to the buying and selling of "rare" or " OG" online accounts that are co ...

, a forum dedicated to selling, buying, and trading online accounts, and was banned after four days. In 2019, at the age of 16, Clark was involved in stealing 164

bitcoins Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC; sign: ₿) is a decentralized digital currency that can be transferred on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network. Bitcoin transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distri ...

from Gregg Bennett, a

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

-based

angel investor An angel investor (also known as a business angel, informal investor, angel funder, private investor, or seed investor) is an individual who provides capital for a business or businesses start-up, usually in exchange for convertible debt or owners ...

, through a SIM swap attack. Clark sent two extortion notes under the alias "Scrim", stating, "We just want the remainder of the funds in the Bittrex", referring to the

cryptocurrency exchange A cryptocurrency exchange, or a digital currency exchange (DCE), is a business that allows customers to trade cryptocurrencies or digital currencies for other assets, such as conventional fiat money or other digital currencies. Exchanges may acce ...

"Bittrex" that Bennett had used, and "We are always one step ahead and this is your easiest option." The

United States Secret Service The United States Secret Service (USSS or Secret Service) is a federal law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security charged with conducting criminal investigations and protecting U.S. political leaders, their families, and ...

managed to recover only 100 bitcoins from the heist. In an interview, Bennett said he was told by a Secret Service agent that the person with the stolen bitcoins was not arrested because he was a minor.

Role in the 2020 Twitter account hijacking

Clark is widely regarded as the "mastermind" of the

, an event in which Clark worked with Mason Sheppard and Nima Fazeli to compromise 130 high-profile

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

accounts to push a cryptocurrency scam involving bitcoin along with seizing "OG" (short for ''original'') usernames to sell on OGUsers. At the time, Sheppard was 19, Fazeli was 22, and Clark was 17. Sheppard and Fazeli specialized in playing the role of brokers in selling the

handles on OGUsers. The Twitter hack began on June 14 when Sheppard and Fazeli assisted Clark in manipulating employees through

social engineering Social engineering may refer to: * Social engineering (political science), a means of influencing particular attitudes and social behaviors on a large scale * Social engineering (security), obtaining confidential information by manipulating and/or ...

. This involved calling multiple Twitter employees and posing as the help desk in Twitter's IT department responding to a reported problem with Twitter's internal

VPN A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The be ...

. From there, Clark directed the employee to a

phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...

site that was identical in appearance to Twitter's VPN log-in portal. When the employee entered their information into the phishing portal, the credentials were simultaneously entered onto the real log-in page. After one employee account was compromised, it was used to review instructions on Twitter's

intranet An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in c ...

on how to take over Twitter accounts.

Arrest

On July 31, 2020, Clark was arrested at his home in

Northdale, Florida Northdale is an unincorporated census-designated place in Hillsborough County, Florida, United States. Northdale was named by the combination of the words in North Dale Mabry, the main highway through the Northdale area. The population was 22,07 ...

. He faced 30 criminal charges, including 17 counts of communication fraud, 11 counts of fraudulent use of personal information, one count of organized fraud for more than $5,000, and one count of accessing a computer or electronic device without authority. His bail was set at $725,000 and he pleaded not guilty. His hearing was held on March 16, 2021, via

Zoom Zoom may refer to: Technology Computing * Zoom (software), videoconferencing application * Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display * Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...

at Hillsborough County Jail. He was sentenced to three years in prison followed by three years of probation as part of a

plea deal A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or ''nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendant ...

under Florida's Youthful Offender Act, which limits the penalties for convicted felons under the age of 21. According to the ''

Tampa Bay Times The ''Tampa Bay Times'', previously named the ''St. Petersburg Times'' until 2011, is an American newspaper published in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. It has won fourteen Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, and in 2009, won two in a single y ...

'', he was able to serve part of his time in a military-style boot camp. The plea agreement stipulated that Clark could not "direct yor indirect yaccess" any electronic device without both the express permission of his prohibition officer and the notification of the

Florida Department of Law Enforcement The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is a state-wide investigative law enforcement agency within the state of Florida. The department formally coordinates eight boards, councils, and commissions. FDLE's duties, responsibilities and ...

. He was also required to provide a list of "any and all electronic mail addresses, Interactive computer services, Internet

domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

, commercial social networking websites, online or remote storage and computing devices, Internet identifiers and each Internet identifier's corresponding website ichomepage or application software name; home telephone numbers and cellular telephone numbers in his care custody or control." Additionally, he was ordered to disclose passwords, security codes, tokens, and

key fob A keychain (also key fob or keyring) is a small ring or chain of metal to which several keys can be attached. The length of a keychain allows an item to be used more easily than if connected directly to a keyring. Some keychains allow one or bo ...

s. Clark was released from Saint Petersburg Community Release Center on February 16, 2023.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clark, Graham Ivan 2003 births American cybercriminals Hackers Living people People from Hillsborough County, Florida