Prosecutors in Florida on Friday said they have filed a slew of criminal charges against a 17-year-old accused of masterminding the massive hack of high-profile Twitter users in mid-July.

Investigators identified Florida resident Graham Ivan Clark as the "mastermind" of the cyberattack and arrested him in Tampa, Hillsborough state attorney Andrew Warren said.

The attack which Twitter said resulted from a "phone spear phishing" attack enabled the hackers to take control of accounts of famous people such as Bill Gates, Elon Musk and former US president Barack Obama and trick people into sending more than $100,000 worth of Bitcoin.

"This defendant lives here in Tampa, he committed the crime here, and he'll be prosecuted here," Warren added.