NEWS
NEWS
NEWS
Man pleads guilty to hacking Gmail + Apple Mail accounts and obtaining x-rated pics of celebrities
An Astoria, Oregon man has pleaded guilty to hacking 363 Apple and Gmail accounts, including those belonging to celebrities, and obtaining X-Rated pictures from a number of those accounts.
Twenty-nine year-old Andrew Helton admitted that he was behind the scheme, which saw him target a range of people using a phishing scheme that involved him sending emails to victims asking them to verify their accounts by clicking on a link.
The links in the emails, pretending to be from Apple and Google, then took the victims to a malicious website dressed up as being an official page from each company, whereby the victims were asked to enter their username and password.
Having obtained access to the accounts, Helton then obtained 161 sexually explicit, nude and/or partially nude images of approximately 13 victims, some of whom were celebrities.
“The thought of a stranger accessing your private communications for sport or monetary gain can be devastating,” Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Assistant Director in Charge of the Los Angeles Field Office David Bowdich said in a statement. “This insidious crime has distressed scores of average individuals, as well as celebrity victims. The FBI is committed to holding accountable those who illegally intrude upon the cyber landscape, and to educating consumers about strengthening passwords and employing two-factor authentication, among other safeguards.”
Celebgate
An FBI spokesman told CBS News that Helton’s case was separate from that of the infamous “Celebgate/Fappening” scandal in 2014, which involved a similar phishing scheme that resulted in private nude images appearing online from celebrities including actress Jennifer Lawrence, pop star Rihanna and model Kate Upton.
The spokesman also said that they believed that none of the pictures Helton obtained were ever leaked online.
Hilton pleaded guilty to the charge of felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, specifically a charge of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, a crime that has a maximum sentence of five years in person
The sentencing hearing will be held June 2nd.
Image credit: gageskidmore/Flickr/CC by 2.0
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