A man
from Chi town has pleaded guilty to utilizing a phishing scheme to hack to the
computers of celebrities to steal private information and sensitive content.
Ed Majerczyk,
28 years aged, was charged with illegally accessing a lot more than 300
accounts on Apple's iCloud as well as Google's Gmail platforms, a minimum of 30
of which belonged in order to celebrities.
Majerczyk
agreed to plead guilty to 1 count of felony for unauthorized use of a protected
computer to acquire information, in a cope with federal authorities in La. The
information that the actual hacker obtained was contained in an incident in
2014, which is now known as the "Celebgate" scandal.
Within
the incident, private nude photos of several actresses as well as models were
leaked on the internet, including Kate Upton, Jennifer Lawrence, Brie Larson as
well as Olivia Munn.
However,
none from the celebrities whom Majerczyk hacked inside the period of November
2013 in order to August 2014 were specified within the plea deal.
The
guilty plea of Majerczyk uses 36-year-old Ryan Collins, another hacker
associated with Celebgate, likewise pleaded guilty following being charged of
gaining unauthorized use of protected computers between time frame of November
2012 in order to September 2014. Collins could hack into at minimum 100 iCloud
and Googlemail accounts, with some of these belonging to celebrities.
Majerczyk
and Collins both used exactly the same phishing technique of delivering their
victims emails which were made to appear to possess come from internet support
and security providers. The emails contained hyperlinks to websites that
gathered the username and passwords of the victims to gain entry to their
accounts.
Once
the cyber-terrorist had the login particulars, they were able to get into
sensitive information, including naked pictures and videos.
Nevertheless,
according to the government bodies, while Majerczyk and Collins each pleaded
guilty to being able to access the accounts, there isn't any direct evidence
that points towards the hackers being the types who leaked the photos and
videos online.
"Hacking
of online accounts to steal private information is not merely an intrusion of
the individual's privacy, but is really a serious violation of government law,
" said USA. Attorney Eileen Decker.
FBI La
field office assistant overseer Deirdre Fike added which what the hackers do
cause embarrassment and enduring harm, and so users along with accounts and
devices containing personal information should always safeguard their own data.
This would be particularly more essential for celebrities, who could end up
being directly targeted by this kind of attacks.
Both
hackers are now facing imprisonment as high as five years.
Techsourcenetwork