celebgate
Latest
Fifth 'Celebgate' account hijacker sentenced to 34 months in prison
The "celebgate" photo leaks might be years old by now, but that isn't stopping the courts from doling out stiff punishment for the account hijacks. A federal judge has sentenced Chris Brannan to 34 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to identity theft and unauthorized access charges. He admitted to compromising the iCloud, Facebook and Yahoo accounts of 200 targets through both phishing attacks as well as social engineering (where he researched targets to answer their security questions).
Fifth person pleads guilty to 'celebgate' account hijacks
Did we say that all the 'celebgate' perpetrators had faced justice? Well, not quite. A fifth person embroiled in the incident, Virginia resident Chris Brannan, has pleaded guilty to unauthorized access and identity theft charges for his part in the data leaks. He used a combination of phishing emails and simple social engineering efforts (such as hunting Facebook accounts for answers to security questions) to obtain logins for iCloud and email accounts to harvest their data. He compromised more than 200 accounts for "celebrities and noncelebrities," using software to comb iCloud accounts for nude photos and other sensitive info.
Last 'celebgate' hacker sentenced to eight months in prison
The "celebgate" saga appears to be winding to a close. A federal judge in Connecticut has sentenced George Garofano to eight months in prison and three years' supervised release after pleading guilty to compromising celebrities' iCloud accounts (plus hundreds of others) by tricking them into providing usernames and passwords. His defense had pushed for a five-month prison term with five months of home confinement, but the judge appeared to side more closely with prosecutors, who wanted 10 to 16 months behind bars.
Second 'celebgate' hacker sentenced to nine months in prison
For his part in the "celebgate" celebrity hacking scandal, 29-year-old Chicago man Edward Majerczyk will be sentenced to nine months in federal prison. Last July, Majerczyk agreed to plead guilty to felony computer hacking charges, admitting that he scammed more than 300 people, including 30 celebrities, in order to steal their Gmail and iCloud account info.
Second man pleads guilty to breaking into celebrity accounts
No, the convictions over celebrity account breaches aren't over yet. Chicago man Edward Majerczyk has agreed to plead guilty to using phishing scams to fool more than 300 people into compromising their Gmail and iCloud accounts, including 30 celebrities. The bargain reduces his sentence from a maximum of 5 years in prison to between 6 to 12 months. We'll learn the extent of his time behind bars in a few weeks, when the case transfers from California to Illinois for sentencing.
Man pleads guilty to hacking celebrity accounts for photos
The celebrities affected by the massive nude photo leak in 2014 got some answers today. A 36-year-old man from Pennsylvania named Ryan Collins has been charged with computer hacking felony for infiltrating over 50 iCloud and 72 Gmail accounts. He has also agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer, according to the US Attorney's Office of the Central District of California. In his plea deal, Collins admitted to executing a phishing scheme to obtain celebs' usernames and passwords from November 2012 to September 2014. Once he got access to their accounts, he searched for and stole explicit images. In some cases, he even downloaded people's entire iCloud backups.
