The cybercriminal behind the heist of nude pictures of female celebrities in 2014, was sentenced to 18 months in federal, as he obtained illegal access to over 100 Google and Apple email accounts, many of which belonged to public figures. He was originally charged in Los Angeles, but the case was transferred closer to his Pennsylvania, where he was sentenced on Wednesday.
The Cyber Criminal Hacked Rihanna And Jennifer Lawrence
According to The Guardian, the method of the 36-year-old cyber criminal named Ryan Collins, was to send fake emails to the celebrities that appeared to be from Apple and Google, in order to get their usernames and passwords. That way, the cyber criminal stole personal information from his targets, including nude pictures.
In a court in May, he pleaded guilty to federal hacking charges and admitted to a two-year phishing scam to gain passwords of more than 100 people, including famous factors and singers as Rihanna, Aubrey Plaza, Oscar-winning Jennifer Lawrence and Avril Lavigne. The cyber criminal had faced up to five years in jail and $250,000 fine.
Apple Was Criticized For Lack Of Security
When the images were released in August 2014, many people -including some of the hacked celebrities- quickly criticized Apple for not having a reliable security for users private information on its iCloud services. The Cupertino firm explained that it had suffered "a very targeted attack on usernames, passwords and security cases".
"I can't even describe to anybody what it feels like to have my naked body shoot across the world like a news flash against my will. It just makes me feel like a piece of meat that's being passed around for a profit," Jennifer Lawrence told Vanity Fair in an article published in November, 2014, as reported by Mashable.
Although this was a very famous case, this is not the first cyber criminal that commits this kind of actions, since hacking celebrities emails have been occurring since some years ago. In fact, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents traced similar cyber attacks on popular figures to a man in Chicago and another man in Oregon, explaining that these three cases are unrelated.
