The 36-year-old hacker responsible for 2014’s notorious celebrity nude hack – dubbed “The Fappening” – has been sentenced to 18 month in prison. Ryan Collins, of Lancaster, Pensylvania, was sentenced after pleading guilty to federal hacking charges, and admitted during the trial to illegally obtaining the passwords of over 100 people and releasing their private photos, the victims of which included Rihanna, Jennifer Lawrence, and Kirsten Dunst.
Collins employed a rudimentary phishing technique to obtain the passwords, according to Pennsylvania US attorney Bruce Brandler.
“From November 2012 until the beginning of September 2014, Collins engaged in a sophisticated phishing scheme to obtain usernames and passwords for his victims,” the State Atorney’s Office said in a statement. “He sent e-mails to victims that appeared to be from Apple or Google and asked victims to provide their usernames and passwords.”
“When the victims responded, Collins then had access to the victims’ e-mail accounts,” the statement added. “After illegally accessing the e-mail accounts, Collins obtained personal information including nude photographs and videos. In some instances, Collins would use a software program to download the entire contents of the victims’ Apple iCloud backups. In addition, Collins ran a modeling scam in which he tricked his victims into sending him nude photographs.”
While Collins was found to have compromised 122 celebrity accounts, evidence suggests that he attempted to access an even greater number.
“Investigators identified over 600 victims, many of whom were members of the entertainment industry in Los Angeles,” the statement revealed. “By illegally accessing the e-mail accounts, Collins accessed at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts, many of which belonged to female celebrities.”
While Collins was found guilty of illegally accessing the accounts, the subsequent leak of naked celebrity photos could not be traced back to him.
