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Hacker behind 'celebgate' jailed for 18 months

Ryan Collins, the hacker behind 'the Fappenning' will spend the next year and a half behind bars.

Alamy

The individual behind the 2014 iCloud image leaks -- more commonly known as the Fappenning -- has been sentenced. Ryan Collins, 36, will serve an 18 month jail term for one count of violating the Computer Fraud and Misuse Act and another of illegally obtaining access to a computer. Officials at the Department of Justice believe that Collins was able to access over 600 accounts, including those of several famous women. Collins was also found to have run a fake modeling agency in which he mislead people into sending him their naked images.

Collins pleaded guilty to the charges back in March and, while the case was brought in LA, he was sentenced in Pennsylvania, close to where he resides. In a statement, California's DA noted that investigators couldn't establish a link between Collins obtaining the images and their public leaking. Despite this, the pictures -- which included compromising shots of Jennifer Lawrence and Gabrielle Union -- did filter out. The FBI's Deirdre Fike believes that the sentence handed down is "proof that hacking into the accounts of others and stealing private information or images is a crime with serious consequences."