A Pennsylvania man was charged after he pleaded guilty to the wide hacking that took place from November 2012 to September 2014. This involves more than 100 Apple and Gmail accounts belonging mostly to female celebrities such as Jennifer Lawrence and Kate Upton.
In a report by Time, the man was identified as 36-year-old Ryan Collins who admitted sending phishing emails to his victims, enabling him to obtain their personal information including nude photographs and videos. The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California added that Collins sometimes used a software program to download the entire contents of the victims' Apple iCloud backups.
He has been charged with Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, The Guardian reported. He is now facing a maximum sentence of five years behind bars in federal prison.
The photos were released online in 2014 subsequently but inevstigators have not found evidence linking Collins to the actual leaks of the snaps. David Bowdich, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement that Collins illegally accessing intimate details of the victims' personal lives means he violated their privacy and have caused "lasting emotional distress, embarrassment and feelings of insecurity."
Despite the known fact that most of the victims of Collins are celebrities, none of them have been named as part of the plea agreement. An investigation is still ongoing as to who posted the images of the female Hollywood A-listers, CBS News reported.
The charges against Collins come weeks after an Oregon man agreed to plead guilty to stealing the nude or explicit images from 13 people including unidentified female celebrities. Identified as Andrew Helton of Astoria, Oregon, he is set to be sentenced this June 2 and face up to five years in prison. Helton, however, is not linked to the case of Collins.
