Man Pleads Guilty To Celebrity iCloud Hack

You might recall that a bunch of celebrities got their iCloud accounts hacked and shall we say “racy” photos got leaked. According to a post on the Department of Justice website, a man from Pennsylvania has been charged with felony computer hacking after obtaining access to Gmail and iCloud accounts of more than 100 different people, the majority of whom were celebrities. Ryan Collins, has signed a plea agreement and agreed to plead guilty to a felony violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. He’s looking at 18 months to 5 years in the big house because of his illegal activities.

Collins apparently engaged in a phishing scheme between November 2012 and September 2014 where he would send emails to celebrities that appeared to be from Apple or Google and asked for login details. The celebs bought into the scheme and handed over those details. He was then able to access email accounts and iCloud accounts and then obtained information such as nude images and videos, as well as phone numbers. In the case of Apple accounts, Collins would download the entire contents of the victim’s iCloud backup, as well.

Things could go from bad to worse for Collins as the cops have yet to be able to prove that he was the one who leaked the “racy” photos to the Internet. If they can do that, he may spend more time in the grey bar hotel. Thus you might want to watch this space as this may not be over yet.

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