Hacker pleads guilty to blackmailing Adafruit, Bleacher Report, and other sites for bitcoin
A Cypriot man pleaded guilty to hacking and blackmailing several US companies. Joshua Epifaniou admitted to computer fraud and paid $600,000 in restitution to his victims. He was extradited from Cyprus and will be sentenced on March 3rd.
Epifaniou operated what he described as a “hacking, extortion, blackmailing, [and] bluffing” scheme from 2014 to 2016. Going by aliases that included “Charley Sullivan” and “Richard Charley,” he picked targets based on their Alexa traffic rankings. That led him to several well-known online businesses — including the Turner Broadcasting-owned sports site Bleacher Report, the DIY electronics company Adafruit, and the California-based gaming portal Armor Games.
Epifaniou exploited security vulnerabilities...